


Chasing the Clouds

by lisavslisa



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 1d, American - Freeform, Crush, Developing Relationship, Drug Use, F/M, Falling In Love, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Harry Styles - Freeform, High School, Language, Liam Payne - Freeform, Louis Tomlinson - Freeform, Love Triangles, Lust, New Jersey, Niall Horan - Freeform, Sexual Content, Summer, Summer Fling, Summer Love, Summer Romance, Teenage Drama, Teenagers, Teens, Underage Drinking, Underage Partying, Unrequited Love, Zayn Malik - Freeform, one direction - Freeform, rich kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisavslisa/pseuds/lisavslisa
Summary: Life is quite complicated for Andria Ellis. When her mother remarries, she decides to spend the summer with her estranged father in New Jersey. Upon arrival, she meets her mischievous neighbor and all-around party animal, Louis Tomlinson, who introduces her to all his friends, including the illustrious Harry Styles. From the moment she sets her sights on Harry, Andria is entranced by his elusive presence. He is playing hard to get and she doesn't know why, but she wants to know more than anything. When a stranger from her past comes back into her life, Andria isn't quite sure what to do, which leaves Harry torn between ending things with Andria altogether or finally giving them a real shot with one another.A story where Harry Styles is an American teenager growing up in New Jersey with his friends.☁️ "Running after you is like chasing the clouds..." ☁️
Relationships: Harry Styles/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue

**_July 2009_ **

_"Andria... psst..." She heard as she woke-up in the less-than comfortable bed in her cabin at summer camp._

_"Hmm?" She questioned, opening her eyes to find a boy squatting next to her bunk._

_"Are you awake?" He whispered._

_"What are... what are you doing in here?" She questioned as she sat up quickly, feeling a bit of vertigo as she did. She pressed her hand to her head for a moment and closed her eyes tightly to try to get her brain to right itself again._

_"Are you okay?" He whispered, reaching out to gently touch her arm._

_"Mm-hmm," she hummed, opening her eyes to look at him again._

_She was so confused about why he was there. The two of them hadn't really interacted much while they were at camp. She didn't really even know him. She just knew he was absolutely beautiful and that she spent more time than she cared to admit sneaking glances at him from across the campfire._

_"What are you doing in here?" She asked again._

_"Sneak out with me," he said with that mischievous smirk he always led with._

_"Sneak out with you?" She asked quietly. He was literally one of the cutest boys she'd ever seen and her stomach flooded with butterflies over the prospect of him wanting to spend any time with her._

_"Yeah. Come with me. I managed to swipe a fifth of vodka from the counselor's office," he said with a sly smile, tugging on the straps of his backpack that was slung over his shoulders._

_"How?" She asked him curiously, her mouth agape. Though, if anyone could manage it, she figured it was probably him._

_"Old man Lerman left the door unlocked," he told her quietly with a shrug of his shoulders._

_It was the middle of the night and they were at summer camp, what could have been more of a no-no than sneaking out to drink with a boy after lights-out?_

_"Okay," she said quietly, sliding the blankets off her legs to slip out of bed._

_"Okay?" He questioned with a genuine smile on his face._

_"Yeah," she said, standing up, feeling the blush rise up in her cheeks as she smiled back at him._

_"Let's go down by the lake. It's cooler down there," he suggested._

_She wasn't sure what kind of 'cooler' he meant, but either way she was down for whatever. As she grabbed for some clothes to put on that weren't her pajamas, she caught the smirk on his face._

_"What?" She whispered as she fought her own smirk._

_"I wouldn't even bother changing," he said, quirking his eyebrow at her. She noticed he was wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a white tank top, which was a stark contrast to his usual look of a random black band t-shirt and cut-off jean shorts that he wore just about everyday._

_"O-okay," she stammered as she dropped her jean shorts onto her bed before following him out of the small cabin in just a tank top and pajama shorts. It was a wonder to her how they made it out without waking one of her bunk-mates, but they did. And she was relieved._

_He was right, it was cooler down by the lake, in every single aspect. The breeze off the water was inviting and the moonlight that shown across the lake was mesmerizing._

_"Here," he said as he pulled out a small red blanket from his backpack and spread it out in the damp grass._

_She couldn't help but smile at his thoughtfulness as she sat down with him and wondered what his story was. She thought about it a lot actually, but she was always too shy to just go up and talk to him. He intrigued her though. He seemed like the rebellious-type, but that was only an assumption she made from the small glimpses she got of him throughout the summer._

_Setting aside his constant brooding and mysteriousness, he seemed sweet and harmless as they sat together by the lake. They took turns taking sips off of the bottle of vodka, chasing it with soda and soon she could feel it taking effect. Her head was spinning, but she felt good at the same time. She couldn't help but smile as she looked over at him._

_"What?" He asked, smirking back at her._

_"You're really cute, you know that?" She told him. He scoffed out a laugh just before he took another sip off the bottle._

_"Oh my god. I can't believe I just said that out loud," she groaned as she cringed noticeably, feeling embarrassment flood her._

_"What difference does it make?" He said with a passive shrug._

_"That I just told you you're cute? It's embarrassing," she said as she felt her cheeks burn with blush._

_"Why? Because you spoke your opinion?" He asked, quirking his eyebrow._

_"Because – I don't know," she sighed, feeling the anxiety in her chest. She wished she wasn't so shy sometimes because awkward social situations like this could be avoided altogether._

_"People should say what they mean more often," he told her with a smirk._

_"Right," she scoffed, knowing doing that would be next to impossible._

_"I think you're cute too," he told her a moment later. She didn't know if he was trying to make her feel better or what, but it was working._

_"You do?" She choked out._

_"Of course," he said with a smirk._

_'Of course', like she should have known the biggest babe at camp thought she was cute. Right. She giggled to herself because it was just absurd. She was certain he could have any girl of his choosing, what the hell did he want with her?_

_He looked up at the sky and she did the same. She loved looking at the stars more than almost anything. It was one of the most beautiful things in the world._

_"Look! There's a shooting star," he said, pointing up quickly and Andie was able to watch it as it faded out._

_"Amazing," she breathed._

_"You've got to make a wish," he told her and she couldn't help but smile._

_"Technically..." She began, but cut herself off._

_"What?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows questioningly._

_"Uh. Technically shooting stars aren't really stars. They're meteoroids burning up as they enter the earth atmosphere. So, I mean, it's not like you're wishing on a real star," she explained and then cringed because she sounded like such a know-it-all and kind of an asshole at the same time. Why did she have to crush his cute little moment?_

_"Really?" He asked, his eyebrows shooting up as his face brightened._

_"Yeah," she replied, nodding her head._

_"Hm. Guess I can tell you what I wished for then," he told her._

_"Oh yeah?" She questioned, breathing out a laugh._

_"Mm-hmm. I wished for a kiss from a cute girl," he told her, his eyes staring into hers._

_"Oh," she said quietly as her entire cardiovascular system seemed to stop working for a few moments._

_Her attention caught as he leaned toward her. Her breathing hitched in her throat when she realized what was happening. She had never been so scared and excited in her whole entire life._

_His lips were soft and warm against hers, and she didn't really know what to do. But he seemed like he did, so she went with it, and before her mind could even catch up, she was laid back against the blanket while his body and lips melded with hers._

_It was remarkable just how fast things progressed between the two of them. One moment they were just kissing and the next they were lying half-naked with one another. She didn't even know she wanted to go down that road until it was happening. She was only fifteen and pretty naïve about things like sex. She never got the talk from her parents. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good idea to send your teenage daughter off to a unisex camp with some sort of version of "the talk". But alas, that did not happen for her. She knew in the back of her mind she should have been smarter about it, but somehow she didn't care._

_He was gone from camp the next day. Rumors spread that he got kicked out for breaking into the counselor's office. She was the only camper who actually knew the rumors were true. One of his bunk-mates passed her a note the next day during dinner. She didn't read it until she arrived back at her cabin that night. She cried when she read his apology, frustration eating her up entirely. He apologized for the things he did leading up to his expulsion from the camp, but that he wasn't sorry for inviting her down to the lake with him. He left his phone number and told her to call him. But she knew she'd never have the guts to make that call._

_His sudden departure from camp and from her life altogether made her feel cheated. It was like the universe conspired to take him away from her before she even got a real chance to get to know the boy who she gave everything to. It wasn't fair._

_She knew he would always hold a pleasant spot in her memories and she knew she would never get over losing the possibility of him. And from that day on, she lived her life trying to find someone with his same free-spirit, someone who would make her feel like he did, like she was the only girl in the world._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Hello! I am so excited to start sharing this story with all of you. I've been writing it off and on for years, and during this pandemic, I've managed to tack on another 40,000 words to its total. It's become a story I absolutely love and one that I'm finally comfortable with sharing. I'm not entirely finished writing it yet, but the first 11 out of 23 chapters are completely finished and the other 12 chapters are not far from being done.**
> 
> **Be prepared for a lot of partying, underage drinking, drugs, and sexual situations.**
> 
> **This is a Harry-centered fic, but all five of the One Direction boys are in it and I really love all of their characters. Who do you think the mystery guy from camp is?**
> 
> **I really, really hope you enjoy this story. Please leave kudos and reviews. Every single comment makes me so very happy and it makes it feel like all the hours I've spent writing have been worth it! Thank you so much!**


	2. One

**June 2011**

Andria Ellis was the product of a shotgun wedding between a wealthy businessman and an aspiring model seventeen years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her father picked up her mother in a club on the Vegas strip where she waitressed, fully intending to just bed her for the night. But miraculously something clicked for a moment in time and they were wed two days later – two months after that Andria was conceived, and less than a year after she was born her parents were divorced.

Not liking the east coast where her father moved them after their wedding, her mother decided to make the southwest her home again after their split, thus the reason Andria grew up in a single parent home in Nevada, barely knowing her father.

When her mother suggested she spend the summer in New Jersey with her bio-dad, it was not something she saw coming. But her mother finally found love after all these years, and remarried that spring. Luckily enough, her mother never treated her like a burden. She was always loving and took care of her, but she knew she hadn’t been a real part of her mom’s plans, and she knew marrying her step-father Ross was her mom’s one real shot at true happiness after spending nearly all of Andria’s childhood alone. She hindered her mother’s life long enough and felt like it was her daughterly duty to give her some time with her new husband. So she didn’t make a fuss when her mom suggested the idea to stay with her father for the summer. And she tried not to bitch about it as she packed up her belongings and flew across the country to New Jersey.

Somehow in the back of her mind, she knew it would be a good thing for her to get away from Nevada and all the negativity that was bringing her down. She’d just recently gotten out of a bad relationship, where her boyfriend of nearly a year-and-a-half cheated on her with her best friend. She lost two of the most important people in her life in one fell swoop and it took a toll on her. She was certain her mother knew it as well, and thought maybe getting away would be the best thing for her.

Her father didn’t even bother to pick her up from the airport himself. He just sent a car, which pretty much summed up the level of involvement he had in any aspect of her life.

Midland Park, New Jersey was just about an hour from _JFK International Airport_ and it gave her enough time to brace herself before she was thrust upon a world of gated communities and well-manicured lawns.

_Charming_ was the first word to pop in her head when driving through her father’s town. It had been two years since she’d been there and not a lot had changed really.

The driver slowed to obey the speed limit in the small New Jersey town, allowing her to study the shops lining the main street. Her heart pounded a couple extra excited beats as she watched the town float by and wondered how far she would be from the quaint bookstore or the little hobby shop.

All too soon, the driver turned down a tree-lined road where houses were picture perfect and nearing the size of apartment buildings. Soon they were pulling up to a gate, which required a key code to enter and she knew she arrived at her destination. Her father was well-off and his house showed it. The car carried them up the driveway to a formidable Victorian manor that she had only been to a few other times before. She was back in the grips of prestige and wealth, and it was overwhelming.

She unloaded out of the town car, her neck craning to look up at the house, wondering if she was going to be as alone as she felt all summer long. The driver unloaded her belongings from the trunk just as the front door opened to reveal a gray haired older woman.

“You must be Andria,” the lady said, smiling at her as she made her way down the porch stairs.

“Yes. I am. Uh, you can all me Andie, if that’s cool,” Andie said, wondering who exactly _she_ was.

Did her father have a new wife? He’d already been through at least three since she’d been alive and she knew he had some before he married her mother. She lost count on how many there were. She didn’t even _meet_ the last of his wives before he ended up divorcing her.

“Certainly. I am Mrs. Tate. But you can call me Rose,” she introduced herself.

“Hello,” she said quietly.

“I work for your father, here at the house,” Mrs. Tate explained.

“Like a maid?” Andie asked, her eyebrows furrowing in question.

Her father never had a maid before but maybe he started needing help in his older age. He was over twenty years older than her mother after all - which made him like, at least sixty now. She actually had no idea how old her father was. Just… _old_. Like, pretty sure he was the same age as her maternal grandpa. It was weird.

“Yes, like a maid. But I prefer the term housekeeper,” she corrected, smiling pleasantly.

“Okay,” Andie said, smiling back at her before following her into the house.

“I made cookies in honor of your arrival if you’d like some,” Mrs. Tate offered, the smile never leaving her face.

“Thank you,” Andie told her.

A moment later, a large german shepherd ran out of the living room, immediately heading in Andie’s direction.

“Duke!” Mrs. Tate called out to him, just as he jumped at Andie.

“Oh, hello!” Andie cooed at the dog, pulling his paws off her stomach and dropping them back on the ground before she pet his head. He tried to lean up to lick her face, but she quickly darted her head away and laughed.

“I’m sorry. He still thinks he’s a puppy,” Rose said, grabbing onto his collar to pull him back.

“He’s cute. I didn’t know my father had a dog,” Andie said, looking up at the woman.

“He got him about a year ago,” she said with a nod.

“Duke, go play,” Rose said, shooing him off and he went running through the house.

“When I heard you were coming, I was glad to hear the estrogen level would finally be evened out in this house,” Mrs. Tate said, winking at Andie.

And that was when Andie realized she already liked Mrs. Tate. She was calming and sweet, and made her feel at home right away.

…

Boredom sunk in quickly. Andie tried to find things to pass the time after a couple of days. She already managed to read the _one_ book she brought that summer and there was only so much daytime television she could tolerate. She didn’t want to spend her entire summer in front of a TV anyway. So she spent a lot of her first days in New Jersey in the front yard with her father’s dog. Duke was the sweetest boy, and loved human contact more than almost anything.

“Duke! Come on puppy, come on,” Andie shouted at the dog when he decided to start sniffing around the yard instead of bringing the Frisbee back to her.

“Duke! _Come on_ ,” she said firmly.

But that was when her attention caught the car that was pulling up across the street at her father’s neighbor’s house. It was two teenage boys, one being dropped off in front of the house by the other. She couldn’t help but notice from her vantage point that both boys were around her own age, and _very_ good looking.

“Yo. I’ll see you later tonight,” the boy who got out of the car said to the other.

“Yeah. See you later, man,” the driver said, waving to him.

She stood there staring like an idiot while the insanely cute driver looked up, noticing her loser moment. But he smiled anyway, nodding his head and cocking his eyebrow at her suggestively. She couldn’t help but smile as her face blushed quickly. Her anxiety caused her to look away for a moment and when she looked back up, the car was already tail-lights down the road, leaving the one boy still standing at the end of the driveway.

“Hey,” he said loud enough to get her attention.

“Hi,” Andie said, giving him an awkward wave.

“Hey, what’s your name?” He called out as he began to walk toward her.

“What?” She choked out as she began to blush again, knowing he was coming to talk to her.

“What’s your name?” He asked again as he made his way up to her father’s wrought iron fence.

“Andie,” she told him as she took a few steps toward the fence.

“Andie?” He questioned.

“Yeah. It’s short for Andria,” she explained.

“I’m Louis – short for nothing really. But I mean, it’s not _Lewis_ or anything. Just Louis,” he said, smirking at her. He had short, shaggy brown hair that was swept to one side, like it was sort of done out of necessity to keep it out of his face more than anything, and light blue eyes that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, smiling bashfully at him.

“Likewise. How old are you?” He asked a moment later.

“Uh, seventeen. Why?” She asked, feeling her cheeks heat up as he watched her.

“Just wondering,” he said with a smile.

“How old are _you?”_ She countered.

“Seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in December,” he told her.

“No way. _I’ll_ be eighteen in December,” she said with a laugh.

“Hell yeah. Mine’s the 24th, when’s yours?” He asked, his smile so wide, it made his eyes look like they were squinting.

“The 21st,” she told him.

“High five!” He said enthusiastically, sticking his hand through the wrought iron fence. She laughed and high fived him.

“So, uh, hey. Do you have plans tonight?” He asked with a sideways smile.

“Plans?” She choked out.

Was he hitting on her? Was that how boys worked in New Jersey? The only other boy she spent any time with in New Jersey was the first boy she ever kissed, the boy she gave her virginity to at camp, two years before. They were fast in these parts, apparently.

“Yeah. I’m having a party tonight. Do you want to come?” He asked, pointing back at what she could only assume was his house.

“A party?” She questioned.

“Yeah. Ever been to one?” He asked, smiling wryly and she realized he was poking fun at her.

“Of course I have,” she scoffed lightly, smiling back at him. Not many, but she’d been to a few. And none in a house the size of his.

“Well, good. You should come,” he told her.

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding her head.

“Who are you, by the way? I mean, what are you doing here? At Mr. Ellis’ house? Are you the new housekeeper or something? Dog sitter, maybe?” Louis asked, looking up at the house and then over at Duke who was now quietly laying in the grass.

“Uh, I’m his daughter,” she told him.

“Daughter? _Really?”_ Louis asked, looking completely shocked.

“Yep.”

“I’ve lived over there all my life and never once knew the old man had any kids,” Louis said, letting out a laugh.

“I live in Nevada with my mom. But I’m here for the summer,” she explained.

“The whole summer, huh?” He asked, smiling mischievously.

“Yep,” she told him.

“We can get into a lot of trouble in that amount of time,” he said, bobbing his eyebrows.

She wasn’t sure what he meant entirely, but she couldn’t say she didn’t want to find out. He was a very cute boy who was implying he wanted to spend more time with her.

“Party’s at eight, Andie. Be there,” Louis told her.

“Alright.” She nodded and watched as he turned back toward his house.

She wanted to ask him what kind of party it would be, just so she could prepare for it better, but refrained and instead, watched him walk away.

…

Andie debated it for a long time - to go to the party or not. She wasn’t the most outgoing person, especially with new people. And ever since being cheated on, her fear of rejection was overwhelming. But, she wanted her summer to be _decent_ at least and being invited to a party was a step in the right direction.

Though her anxiety as she got ready for the night was tormenting her. If she went, would she even find anyone to talk to? Would she walk around the party alone until she decided to go back to her pathetic life at her father’s house? Or would she have the time of her life? She figured she’d never know if she didn’t go.

She wasn’t sure exactly how formal the party was going to be, so she played it safe, dressing in a simple white floral sundress with a pair of tan wedges. She wore her wavy blonde hair down with light makeup on her face, and hoped she didn’t look like she was trying too hard to fit in.

She barely asked her father’s permission to go to the party that night, but he barely even knew she was around anyway. He was so preoccupied with whatever business he was working on in his office that she hardly even got the time of day between the phone calls he was on.

She walked over to Louis’ house alone, feeling vulnerable and hoped the night wouldn’t turn into an utter disaster. As she went up the sidewalk, she passed by two already seemingly drunk boys who just stumbled out the front door and she immediately knew what kind of party she was about to step into.

“ _Heyyy_ ,” the first one said to her with a very suggestive tone in his voice as he looked her up and down.

“Hi,” she giggled lightly to herself.

“My friend thinks you’re hot,” the other one called back to her as they kept walking.

“Uh, thank you?” She said as she continued toward the front door.

Walking into that house felt like she was transported into a movie – like, it was the stereotypical underage kegger in a ridiculously large house. There were teenagers everywhere and red solo cups in every hand. She’d never been to a party this big before. There were so many people.

“Andie!” She heard someone bellow her name and turned to find her new neighbor Louis coming toward her.

“Hey,” she greeted, smiling bashfully at him.

“You made it!” He said, wrapping an arm around her, giving her a half-hug.

“Yeah, I decided to come,” she told him with a perma-smile on her face.

“Decided to come? Of course you fucking decided to come. Want something to drink?” He laughed, holding up his cup.

“Sure,” she told him before he led her into the massive kitchen where the keg sat in a large round plastic tub of ice.

She watched as he pumped the tap on the keg before filling her very own red solo cup, handing it off to her. She’d never been much of a beer drinker, but she thanked him anyway, taking a quick sip of it.

“Come on. I want you to meet my girl. I think you two might get along,” Louis told her as he guided her out of the kitchen.

A twinge of disappointment shot through her at the mention of his ‘girl’. Louis was a very attractive, nice dude, and a part of her was wondering if maybe she might be able to flirt with the boy next door all summer. But as soon as she met his girlfriend, Janessa, and hung out with them for a little while, she knew they were perfect for each other. They were both quirky and sarcastic, and so deeply in love with one another.

Janessa was absolutely gorgeous, with long dark hair, blue eyes and a body that was any guy’s dream.

“I want you to meet some of my friends,” Janessa said, tugging Andie by the wrist toward the stairs and Andie had no choice but to follow her. But she wasn’t protesting anyway.

The two of them walked downstairs together into the lower level that seemed to be set up like a massive rec room with a pool table, ping pong table, a bar and another huge living room with one of the biggest TV’s she’d ever seen attached to the wall. There were even more people congregating down there and Andie wondered just how many people Louis knew or if he just decided to invite _everyone_ in his school.

“Caitlyn!” Janessa shouted, waving her friend over. An asian girl with long silky black hair and chestnut eyes turned to smile at Janessa before walking over.

“Hey, this is Andie. She’s Louis’ new neighbor,” Janessa introduced them.

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you!” Caitlyn said happily.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Andie said, smiling at her. It seemed to be going well so far.

“Oh, Sasha! This is Andie. She’s Louis’ new neighbor. She lives right across the street,” Janessa said to the girl who just walked up. She had golden hair and tan skin and was wearing a tight red dress that really showed off her curves.

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you,” Andie said with a smile.

“Hey,” she said with a ghost of a smile before her attention fell back to Janessa and started asking her about the beach or something. Andie felt a bit awkward and wondered what the hell was up her ass.

“Wait, you live in that gigantic house with the tall fence?” Caitlyn asked curiously, breaking Andie out of her thoughts.

“Yeah,” Andie said sheepishly, hoping nobody was going to judge her unfavorably because of her father’s wealth.

“The one with the gate?” Sasha asked, quirking an eyebrow, showing a bit of interest.

“Wow. Your parents must be loaded,” Caitlyn said with wide-eyes.

“Uh, it’s just my dad,” Andie told her, feeling her cheeks heat up.

“It’s just you and your dad living there?” Caitlyn asked incredulously.

“And the housekeeper. Oh, and his dog, Duke,” Andie pointed out.

“He has a housekeeper?” Sasha asked, looking even more impressed.

“Yeah,” Andie said quietly, feeling almost ashamed of her father’s wealth. She didn’t want to be known as the rich girl, because she really wasn’t.

“ _Hmm_ ,” Sasha hummed, pursing her lips before her attention went back to Janessa, continuing their conversations.

“Wow. That must be really cool,” Caitlyn said, smiling at her.

“I mean, it’s not bad,” Andie said with a light laugh.

“Hey, babe. You want another drink?” A cute blonde guy appeared out of nowhere, wrapping his arm around Caitlyn’s waist.

“Uh, yeah, sure. Hey, this is Louis’ new neighbor,” Caitlyn told him.

“Hey, what’s up? I’m Niall,” he said, holding his hand out to shake hers.

“Hi, I’m Andie. It’s nice to meet you,” Andie greeted him.

“Andie? Just one of the guys, huh?” Niall quipped about her name.

“Uh, it’s short for Andria,” she said with a light laugh. She wondered when people would realize that it was okay for girls and guys to have the same names or nicknames.

“She lives in that big house with the tall fence,” Caitlyn told him.

“No shit? The one across the street?” Niall asked Andie.

“Yeah. It’s my dad’s house,” she told him.

“Did that old guy die that lived there before or something?” Niall asked, furrowing his eyebrow. Andie choked out a laugh.

“Uh, no. That’s him,” Andie said, trying to bite back her smile. Her father built that house and has lived there since. There was no other _old guy_ Niall could be talking about.

“That guy is your dad? He’s old as fuck,” Niall said incredulously, trying not to laugh too much.

“Niall!” Caitlyn said, back-handing him in the chest.

“No. He is. I think he’s like twenty years older than my mom,” Andie agreed.

“Damn. Didn’t know the old man had it in him. He’s always been a complete _dick_ to us,” Niall told her.

“ _Oh my god_ , Niall. That’s her dad,” Caitlyn scoffed at her boyfriend.

“No, it’s okay. He _is_ a dick,” Andie said with a laugh.

“What are you doing here then?” Niall asked, heightening his eyebrow in question.

“Uh, my mom just got remarried. I figured I might as well give them some space for awhile, so I’m spending the summer up here,” Andie explained.

“Where are you from?” Caitlyn asked.

“Nevada. Uh, not too far from Las Vegas,” Andie told her.

“Vegas! That’s where I plan to spend my twenty-first birthday,” Niall cheered and Andie could only laugh.

“Do you ever sneak into the casinos?” Niall asked with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Nah. They’ve got pretty good security at those places,” she told him.

In all actuality, she rarely ever went down to the strip. It was pretty overrated after living there most of her life. Though she might feel differently about it when she is of age.

...

As the night progressed, Andie met a few of their other friends along the way. And she couldn’t help but feel welcomed by just about all of them. When the party started dwindling down a bit, a group of them sat around a table outside on the patio, drinking and telling stories.

Andie never really got to do a lot of partying back in Nevada. Her mother was pretty strict when it came to curfew, which she figured had something to do with living in such close proximity to Las Vegas. Her mother spent her glory days in the heart of the Vegas strip and Andie figured she was desperately trying to make sure her daughter didn’t go down the same road she did.

“Do you remember the one time we took the four wheelers out with Harry? And by the end of the day we were covered from head to toe in mud?” Louis laughed as he started reliving a memory with Niall.

“Yeah, and Harry almost broke his leg when he tipped the damn thing,” Niall laughed animatedly.

“No shit. I looked back and the whole thing was on top of him. I thought he was dead,” Louis laughed.

“I was so pissed at you that day,” Caitlyn said, lightly hitting Niall’s chest.

“We were careful,” Niall chuckled.

“Yeah, until you two came back with Harry on the back of your four wheeler because he had a sprained ankle. You weren’t even wearing helmets,” she told him.

“He didn’t even hit his head,” Niall laughed.

“Who is Harry?” Andie leaned over to ask Janessa.

“Oh, Harry is Louis’ best friend. As a matter of fact, he should be coming tonight. Louis, isn’t Harry supposed to be here by now?”

“He just texted. He just got off work. He should be here soon,” Louis informed his girlfriend as he looked down at his phone.

“He’s really cute,” Janessa said to Andie.

“Who? Harry?” She asked.

“Yeah, and he’s _single_ ,” Janessa said, suggestively bouncing her eyebrows at Andie.

“Oh, uh, okay,” Andie chuckled, feeling her cheeks heat up.

It didn’t really matter to Andie whether he was ‘single’ or not. She wasn’t looking for any sort of relationship or even a hook-up. She just wanted to have a fun, uncomplicated summer.

It wasn’t until about an hour later that the infamous Harry guy showed up at the party. He was absolutely gorgeous with brown shaggy curls that seemed to have more volume in them than she’d ever seen on a man, and deep-set expressive green eyes. And his smile could light up a room, and it did.

It was a weird thing because it seemed like everyone took notice of him, like this boy was the center of attention in their world. Guys greeted him with handshakes and girls watched him from across the room. They all wanted a piece of him. Andie never saw someone so captivating in all of her life and she quickly realized she was just as magnetized to him as everyone else. Her eyes hadn’t left him since he walked into the room.

“Harry, my man!” Louis yelped, wrapping his arm around his best friend’s shoulder.

“Is the keg tapped out or did I make it in time?” Harry asked, smirking at Louis.

“ _Pshh_. You think I only got _one_ for this party? We’re on the second one already. Come on,” Louis laughed as he led Harry into the kitchen.

“See what I mean?” Andie heard from behind her.

“Huh? What?” She asked, startled as she turned around to find Janessa.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?” She said, smiling implicatively at her.

“I-I guess,” Andie stammered. Of course he was cute. But she wasn’t looking to be embarrassed by anyone trying to set her up with him.

“Come on,” Janessa said, pulling her toward the kitchen.

Andie knew this was going to end badly. She knew what Janessa’s end-game was going to be and she didn’t want it. She didn’t want to be set-up with _anyone_. Especially because she was only in New Jersey for a few months.

“Hey, Styles. Time for you to meet the new girl,” Janessa said with a smile as they reached the kitchen.

_Oh, Jesus Christ._

“Hey, you’re the girl from earlier. The one from across the street,” Harry said as he pointed at Andie.

“ _Yeah_ she is,” Louis said suggestively, smiling at her.

“Wait. You’re the driver,” Andie said, sending him an amused look, realizing he was the boy driving the car that dropped Louis off earlier in the day.

“She’s my new neighbor,” Louis told him.

“Hi, I’m Harry,” he said with a wide smile, thrusting out his hand to shake hers. The dimple in his smile made him even more attractive, _if that were possible._

“Andie,” she said, sliding her hand into his.

“Andie?” He questioned, like just about everyone else when they met her.

“Short for Andria,” she explained for like, the millionth time that night.

“Nice to meet you, Andie,” he said, smiling at her as his eyes pulled her in completely, making her feel like she was the only person in the room.

Her head spun and her heart fluttered, and she knew she should probably stop staring, but she couldn’t look away. He was just that wonderful.


	3. Two

**June 2011**

Andie decided instead of wasting away alone at her father’s house all summer long, she was going to get a job to pass the time. And when she found out they weren’t hiring at the bookstore or the hobby shop on the main stretch of town, she decided on the small grocery store just on the outskirts. She was hired on the spot, barely even going through the interview process. She was pretty much certain they just needed warm bodies to fill positions and she had all of the qualifications.

Her first shift was on a Thursday morning and the busiest rush was when a small shuttle from the nearby nursing home sent a few senior citizens grocery shopping. That first day she learned the registers; she learned stocking; she learned zoning; and she also learned that perhaps it was maybe a mistake to give up her freedom so quickly. She could have at least found something entertaining to do at her father’s house.

It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that she got a taste of what working in a supermarket was really like. They almost didn’t have enough people working to meet the needs of the customers that were coming through the door. She didn’t even get a chance to leave her register until she took her lunch break.

She sat people-watching in her father’s car on her break as she listened to music and ate her lunch. She was stuck in suburban hell. She was sure of it. The land of soccer-moms and geriatrics. She watched more than one child being brought out to the parking lot mid temper-tantrum. She watched the elderly hobble in and out of the store with canes and walkers. She watched as her new boss, Randy, stood next to the building smoking a cigarette on his break. She observed her new surroundings and it made her wonder what she would have been doing if she was at home in Nevada.

“ _Shit_ ,” she heard through her open car window before she heard a car door slam shut. It caught her attention almost immediately. And she looked around, trying to locate the person who seemed to be having a bad day.

Moments later, a guy jogged in front of her car trying to throw a _Midland Park Foods_ smock over his shirt as he moved toward the store. When it dropped out of his hands onto the ground, he growled before stopping to pick it up. She watched on like a voyeur, appreciating the view she had of his butt when he bent over. The guy was having a bad day, but she sure wasn’t.

Once he had the smock in hand, he turned his head, looking back at his car once more, pressing the lock button on his key fob before he took off again toward the store. She was left stunned because she recognized him. At least she _thought_ it was him. Her stomach tied in knots as she rolled up the windows of the car and got out. Her break was nearly over and she needed to get back to work.

When she walked into the store, her suspicions were confirmed as she saw the boy she just met a week earlier talking to a few of her new co-workers. She avoided him as she took position at her register once again, and wondered to herself if he’d even remember her. She got back into the groove of cashiering, nearly forgetting about him, until she caught his eye across the store and she knew immediately he hadn’t forgotten who she was.

“Hey there, stranger,” Harry said, startling her when he showed up at the end of her lane as she rang-out a mother and her two bratty children.

“ _Jesus_ ,” she said under her breath, before realizing she needed to learn to censor herself a little bit better.

“I requested to be your bag boy,” he said, bouncing his eyebrows at her and she felt her cheeks burning almost immediately – partly because what he said almost sounded dirty, but mainly because she was in his presence and it was wrecking her.

“Okay,” she said, smiling politely at him before spewing out the lady’s grocery bill total to her.

As she waited for the lady to pay, she watched Harry out of the corner of her eye bagging up the groceries. He worked swiftly and looked absolutely fantastic doing it.

“Have a great day,” Andie said to the lady with a forced smile plastered across her face, handing off the receipt.

“Come again!” Harry said, smiling at the lady as she pushed her cart of groceries and children out of the store.

Andie stood almost frozen in apprehension. She didn’t know what to say or do around the beautiful boy she spent a few hours with almost a week ago. She had no customers left in her lane now that business seemed to be dying down. She was just stuck.

“So, small world, huh?” Harry said, smiling in her direction. She could do nothing but bite her lip as she stared at him.

“When did you start working here?” He asked, quirking his eyebrow in question.

“Thursday,” she managed to croak out.

“Ooh, man. Welcome to hell,” he said, blowing out a breath before he let out a small laugh.

“I’m slowly realizing that,” she said, giving him a weak smile.

“It’s not _all_ bad, I promise. And now we can totally be work buddies,” he said, smiling widely.

“Totally,” she agreed.

The thought of being _work buddies_ with him appealed to her, but not as much as making out with him in the back stockroom did, perhaps. _Work buddies_ only truly appealed to her if it meant they could flirt all day long to get through the miserable hours they were stuck in this place – being friend-zoned did not. Her mind spiraled. She was contradicting herself and she hated it. She kept telling herself she wasn’t looking and didn’t need a boy to get involved with, but Harry was just so… inviting.

When her shift was finally over, Harry was just getting on his break.

“Andie. Hey, wait up!” She heard him say as she walked toward the exit door. She turned to see him jogging toward her, wondering if maybe she forgot something.

“What’s up?” She asked him.

“I’m going on break. Wanna hang for a bit?” He asked, giving her his prize-winning smile. She couldn’t help but smile back in response. She may have been making her feelings obvious, but somehow she didn’t care because he was there, right in front of her, requesting her time.

“Uh, sure,” she said, nodding her head.

“Cool,” he said as the two of them continued out the door of the store together.

She bit her bottom lip, feeling bashful as the two of them walked to the side of the building where a picnic table sat for employee and customer usage. Harry stepped up on one of the benches and sat down on the top of the table. Andie sat down on the bench and watched as Harry dug out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

“Want one?” He offered.

“No, thank you,” she told him politely, watching as he lit one up and stuck the pack back in his pocket.

“So… your last name is ‘Styles’?” She asked. She may or may not have peeped the work schedule that hung on the wall in the breakroom looking for his name.

“Yeah. Why?” He asked with a sideways smirk before taking a drag of his cigarette.

“It’s kind of funny,” she said, letting out a breath of a laugh.

“Oh?” He questioned, heightening an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Harry Styles… like hairy styles… you know, hairstyles,” she said, fluffing up her hair a bit as a visual.

“Ha. I haven’t heard that one in a while,” he snickered, taking another drag.

_Oh my god_. She was stupid. She sounded _so_ stupid.

“How come you were late… to work, I mean?” She asked him curiously, realizing that both of the times she was in his presence, he arrived late – the party and work.

“Yeah. Funny story. I told my sister I needed the car today. Do you think she gives a shit? No. I almost had to _walk_ here,” Harry scoffed, shaking his head.

“That sucks,” she said quietly, wondering if he had more siblings. She didn’t want to ask because she didn’t know him very well and she didn’t want him to feel like she was intruding on his life.

“Maybe tomorrow I’ll conveniently lose the keys to get back at her,” he said with a devious chuckle.

“Or make sure the tank is on empty,” she suggested.

“Nice. That’s a good one,” Harry said, giving her an approving smile.

Andie didn’t have any siblings, so she could only imagine how big of a pain in the ass it would be to have to share everything with them.

“What made you decide to get a job at thee old _Midland Park Foods_?” Harry asked curiously.

“I don’t know. Boredom, maybe,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“I don’t think you really thought that decision through,” he laughed.

“Apparently not,” she laughed with him.

“It’s not so bad, I guess. The boss is kind of a tool, but if you play him just right, you can get away with whatever you want, pretty much,” he told her.

“Nice,” she said with a smile, thinking about how long it might have taken him to figure that out.

“How long have you worked here?” She asked him.

“Two years, almost. My parents kind of wanted me to have something else to focus on rather than sitting around the house all day or getting in trouble with Louis all the time. But like, they should be lucky they have me as a kid and _not_ Louis,” Harry explained, letting out a boisterous laugh.

“Not that I’m like, the poster child of all things good,” he said, holding out his cigarette as proof of his own small rebellion.

“I think I’ve been witness to a bit of your own kind of trouble,” she chuckled, remembering how drunk he managed to get in the few short hours she spent around him at the party the previous weekend.

“I think you might have,” he laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Nobody’s perfect,” she told him.

“You got that right,” he said, taking one last drag of his cigarette before he got up from the table and stubbed it out in the cigarette butt receptacle next to the picnic table.

Once Harry returned to his spot, the two of them sat in silence for a few moments. She didn’t know what to say. She knew she liked him already and that made everything awkward.

“So you’re from Vegas, right?” He asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah. I live with my mom down there,” she told him.

“And she sent you to your dad’s?” He asked curiously.

“Not exactly. Well, I mean, I kind of just went with it,” she told him vaguely. Harry sent her an odd look and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well, I mean, she just got remarried, and when she suggested I come up here for the summer, I felt like maybe I should give them a little bit of time to be, like, newlyweds, you know?” she explained, shrugging her shoulders.

“That was awfully nice of you,” Harry chuckled.

“I guess,” she said, shrugging again.

“I guess it doesn’t hurt when you get to spend the summer in a big ass mansion,” he quipped and she scoffed out a laugh.

“It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, really,” she told him.

“Right. _Cristal_ and pool parties on the regular. Champagne wishes and caviar dreams,” he joked, swooshing his hands through the back of his hair for dramatic effect. Andie laughed out loud.

“Yeah right. More like reruns of _Desperate Housewives_ and eating a whole bag of _Doritos_ by myself because I don’t seem to have the willpower not to,” she laughed.

“Cool ranch or nacho cheese?” Harry asked quickly.

“Nacho cheese, for sure,” she told him.

“Right on!” Harry said, giving her a high five.

“It’s actually not my first time spending the summer in New Jersey,” she told him.

“Oh, really?” He asked, looking intrigued.

“I was here two summers ago,” she told him.

“You should have come to work here then. That’s when I started,” he laughed.

“Yeah. Well, I literally spent a week with my father before he realized he knew absolutely nothing about snarky teenage girls. I was promptly sent off to camp for the rest of the summer so he didn’t have to deal with me,” she told him.

“That’s rough. But I mean, camp’s fun, right? I used to go when I was a kid,” he said, looking on the bright side.

“I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t really have a lot of friends. But I mean, it wasn’t _all_ bad,” she told him, thinking about the boy she met.

“And now you’re back. And it’s been more than a week right? Do you think the old man is gonna ship you off to camp again?” Harry asked, smirking at her.

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve got prior commitments now,” Andie laughed, nodding her head toward the store.

“So, you decided to get a job to relieve your bad habit of mass-consuming _Doritos_ and to prevent your father from shipping you off again?” He asked, quirking his eyebrow.

“Pretty much,” she told him with a nod of her head.

“I can’t say I’m sorry you did,” he said as he stood up from the table.

Her stomach turned and flipped with butterflies. Did he just say what she thought he did? He was happy to be working with her, to be in her presence?

“I’ve gotta get back, but I mean, we’ll hang out again, right?” He asked hopefully.

“Yeah, sure,” she told him as she stood up from the picnic table.

“You’ll probably see me at Louis’ house all the time this summer. And here, obviously,” he told her.

“Totally,” she said, nodding her head.

“Well, I’ll see you around, Andie,” he said, sending her a nearly knee-weakening smile.

“Yeah, for sure. Bye, Harry,” she said as he started walking toward the front entrance of the store.

Her heart beat wildly in her chest. The summer seemed to be getting brighter and brighter by the second.


	4. Three

**June 2011**

“Miss Andria, you have a visitor,” Mrs. Tate said when she came into the living room where Andie was lounging out on the couch watching a rerun of the _Golden Girls_ on her father’s humongous flat screen TV.

It was Sunday and it was her first day off since she started at the grocery store. She didn’t anticipate any visitors. She only knew a few people in town and realized it could be any one of them – they all knew where she lived.

She scrambled off the couch, smoothing out her t-shirt and jean shorts before she looked up at Mrs. Tate.

“You look great,” she said, smiling reassuringly at her.

“Yeah, right,” Andie chuckled as she pulled her loose ponytail out before knotting up her hair on the top of her head, trying to make herself look a little more presentable.

She quickly walked toward the foyer, her mind solely on who might be at the door and once she turned the corner she ran straight into Harry – _quite literally_ – who was looking at a painting her father had hung on the wall. She was certain it was an original Jackson Pollock painting and it made no sense that it’s brightly colored, chaotic paint streaks were hung up in her type-a, analytical father’s house.

“Oh my god! I’m sorry!” She gasped as she pulled herself away from Harry, feeling like the biggest idiot on the planet.

“It’s cool,” he said, smirking at her.

“What are you doing here… at my father’s house?” She choked out as a blush tried to eat her face alive.

“I don’t know. Jeez, can’t a guy just stop by? You know, it’s not creepy at all,” he said, making a joke of it. And Andie was grateful because it caused her to laugh and she felt herself relaxing almost immediately – even though he made her the most nervous person on earth.

“Nah, but for real. I noticed you weren’t working today and I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out or something,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Her heart fluttered for many different reasons. First, the fact that he even bothered to check her schedule was truly doing her in. And second, he actually came to her father’s house to ask if she wanted to hang out. Dude had plenty of friends to _hang out_ with and he chose her. She could have puked from excitement. But luckily she had a strong poker-face.

“Uh, sure,” Andie said, nodding her head casually, playing it as cool as she could.

“I don’t know what kind of stuff you like to do. But, I don’t know, we could hang out here, or go to my house,” he offered, casually shrugging again.

“Okay. The last thing I want to do is spend another second in this house,” she chuckled lightly. With the eight foot tall wrought iron fence surrounding the entire house, she almost felt like she was in prison.

“Oh, yeah. It must be _rough_ staying in a place like this,” he said sarcastically as his eyes wandered the vast foyer.

“You really have no idea,” she said, smirking at him.

“Alright, we can go to my house. But I’m gonna warn you right now that it’s like a damn zoo there. I have a sister and two brothers—” He started to explain.

“Really?” She asked curiously. She knew he had a sister because he talked about her the day before, but she didn’t know he had two brothers.

“Yeah. Believe me, they’re not as cool as me,” he quipped, smirking at her.

“No, I was just… I don’t have any siblings,” Andie explained.

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, believe me,” he chuckled.

“I wouldn’t know,” she told him.

“I’ve got a dog and two cats too. Any pets?” He asked as the two of them walked toward the front door.

“Nope. My mom said I could get a dog when I was like eleven, but it never happened,” she told him.

“Wow. What a pitiful life-story you have,” he said, smirking playfully at her.

“I promise, I’m not as big of a loser as I sound,” she laughed, pulling out her phone so she could text her father that she was leaving for a little while.

“You’re cute. At least you’ve got that going for you,” he chuckled.

Andie almost froze up from his compliment. Was she platonically cute like a little sister or like a _B-F-F?_ Or was she cute like he wanted to make-out with her against a wall? She would have sold her soul to know the answer.

…

When they got to Harry’s house, Andie was greeted by a golden retriever and Harry’s little brother running around like he was on a sugar high.

“Who are you?” The little guy stopped to ask her, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked up at her.

He literally looked like a mini version of Harry and it made her smile. He had the same wild brown hair and facial structure as Harry, but his eyes were brown instead of Harry’s green.

“I’m Andie,” she said, smiling at him as she squatted down to pet the dog’s head.

“Andie is a boy’s name,” he said, turning up his little nose.

“So I’ve heard,” she chuckled.

“I’m Tommy. I’m seven,” he told her.

“You’re not seven yet, Tom,” Harry reminded him.

“I’m almost seven,” he corrected with a frown directed at his older brother.

“Nice to meet you, Tommy,” Andie told him.

“This is Freddie,” Tommy said as he pointed a finger at the dog she was petting.

“Freddie, huh? Hi, Freddie,” she said as the dog lay down on his back so she could rub his belly.

“Harry and Christian like the singer Freddie,” Tommy told her and Andie looked up at Harry questioningly.

“Freddie Mercury,” Harry elaborated.

“Christian?” Andie questioned a moment later.

“My other brother,” Harry said, smirking at her.

“Do you like video games? I just got _Super Smash Bro_ s. Or we have _Mario Kar_ t. Do you like _Mario Kart?”_ Tommy asked her, talking a mile a minute.

“Are you trying to steal my friend, Tom?” Harry laughed.

“I just like games,” Tommy said, looking up at his older brother with a disappointed look on his face.

“I like games too,” Andie told Tommy as she patted Freddie one more time on the belly before she stood back up.

“You do?” He asked, smiling brightly at her.

“Yeah. Who doesn’t like games? It’s like someone saying they didn’t like to have fun,” she told the little boy.

“I like to have fun!” He said excitedly, bouncing on his feet.

“What do you say? Wanna play some _Mario Kart?”_ Andie asked Harry, cocking a challenging eyebrow at him.

“Alright. If that’s what you wanna do,” Harry chuckled.

Harry and Andie spent the next hour playing _Mario Kart_ with Tommy. In that time, she got an informal introduction to their other brother Christian, who came to watch them play. After seeing how Tommy looked so much like Harry, Andie was surprised when Christian turned out to have straight black hair and deep brown eyes. It made her wonder what their parents looked like, and even their sister for that matter. Did she look more like Harry or Christian?

Once Tommy’s attention span had enough of the game and he ran off to play in his room, Harry set down his _Wii_ remote and looked over at Andie.

“I’m done too,” he told her with a smirk on his lips.

“Alright,” she said, smiling back at him as she set her _Wii_ remote next to his.

“Ah, you were just about to win,” Christian said sarcastically, causing Andie to laugh. Harry grabbed a pillow from the couch and tossed it at Christian’s head.

“Jerk,” Christian laughed, throwing it back, but Harry dodged it easily.

Andie watched as Harry stood up from the couch and stretched his arms up over his head. It didn’t go unnoticed how his shirt rode up, showing off the skin on his stomach and the little patch of hair that stretched from his belly button down to below his waistband. Her heart beat a little faster in her chest as she looked away quickly so he didn’t catch her. But her eyes fell to his little brother’s questioning ones that were already watching her. Christian’s smirk told her everything. And the lift of his eyebrow only confirmed he’d just caught her lusting over his brother. She felt her cheeks flush immediately.

“C’mon. Let’s go to my room,” Harry said to her and she nodded quickly, avoiding eye contact with the dark haired boy on the couch.

When Andie got into Harry’s room it was like sensory overload. Every inch of his bedroom walls were plastered with posters, drawings, paintings and a ton of other random artwork and memorabilia from his life. Every time her eyes moved there was something new to look at. It was probably one of the coolest, most unique bedrooms she’d ever been in. His room had all the normal things: a bed, a dresser, a desk. But there was also a drum kit set up in the corner with an amp and a white electric guitar perched next to it. It made her really want to ask him to play her something on either of the instruments, but she kept quiet, feeling bashful.

“Well, this is where the magic happens,” Harry said, turning around to look at her. Her eyebrows heightened as a smile formed on her lips. He let out a laugh, noticing her expression.

“Well, not _that_ much magic,” he went on to say.

“You play music?” Andie asked him, pointing to the instruments, changing the subject quickly as her cheeks blushed rapidly.

“Yeah, uh. I can play the drums, guitar, and uh, the keyboard,” Harry told her and she nodded her head, giving him an impressed look.

Andie stepped forward toward his desk where a large _Casio_ keyboard sat. She ran her fingers across the keys and it came to life with melody. It startled her a bit because she thought it was turned off.

“You play?” He asked, sounding surprised.

“I dabble,” she told him.

“That sounded like more than dabbling,” he pointed out, sending her a sideway smirk.

“Well, if you consider ten years of piano lessons dabbling,” she told him, playfully shrugging her shoulders. His eyes widened as he looked at her, before a laugh bubbled out of him.

“Yeah, I’d consider that more than dabbling,” he said, also looking impressed.

“My mom taught me,” she said with a shrug, letting her fingers momentarily skirt over the keys again.

Her eyes continued to take in all the wonderful visions of Harry’s room. She could feel his gaze on her, but she didn’t mind. It was actually a little bit flattering. Here she was walking around this boy’s room, getting a birds-eye view of his inner sanctum and all the while he was busy watching her.

“What do you wanna do?” He asked and she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

“Whatever you want to do,” she told him, and caught the sideway smirk that turned up his lips.

“Unless it has to do with any sort of _magic_. What kind of girl do you think I am?” She joked, smiling playfully at him. Harry let out a boisterous laugh and she couldn’t help but giggle, appreciating the fact that she made him genuinely laugh.

“We could watch TV, or a movie, or something,” he offered, pointing to the television that sat on the top of his dresser.

“We could,” she told him with a bashful smile.

“I don’t have any _Doritos_ though. I know how much you like your TV and _Doritos_ ,” he quipped, smiling back at her. It made her seriously blush over the fact that he remembered a ridiculously insignificant thing she told him the day before.

“Damn it,” she joked, watching as he grabbed his remote and sat down on his bed.

“Grab a seat,” Harry told her, patting the mattress next to him.

Andie bit her lip, trying to stifle her smile as she walked around the other side of his bed and sat next to him.

They both agreed on some silly reality cooking competition show. It was interesting and dramatic and she found out Harry liked to cook just as much as she did. The more she found out about him, the more she liked him. He was gorgeous and funny and sarcastic and his sense of humor was on point. She could feel herself falling for him second-by-second, which kind of freaked her out a little bit. She’d known this boy all of five seconds and he was quickly tearing down all the walls she built to keep boys like him out – especially boys she was sure she didn’t stand a chance with. Even if, for some crazy reason, he liked her back and they started dating or whatever, at the end of summer it would be _“peace out, Jersey”_ for her, because this wasn’t her life. Her life was in Nevada. And there was no room for a boy like Harry in it.

But his green eyes were so inviting and she kept catching herself stealing glances at him out of the corner of her eye as they sat side-by-side on his bed, in his room… all alone. She was torn. She was torn until she caught him looking at her too. And she couldn’t help but smile at him and watch as he fondly smiled back. And in a split second he was sitting closer, almost so there wasn’t any room left between them. Her brain lapsed into slow motion as he moved in closer yet, their faces so close she could feel the warmness of his breath on her lips. And then it happened. He kissed her. It was slow and sweet and perfect. But it was over in a flash and he was pulling away, apologizing.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry,” he retracted.

“No, it’s okay. It’s okay, really,” she tried to reassure him.

“I’m sorry. It’s not you. It’s not. I just… I mean, I just got out of a serious relationship,” Harry explained.

“Oh, yeah. Uh, Janessa may have mentioned that,” she said, feeling her face burn with blush.

“She said that? What did she say?” Harry asked, giving her an odd look.

“Um… that you just got out of a serious relationship… that was it. Pretty much word-for-word actually,” she told him.

“When did she tell you that?” Harry asked.

“Uh, at that party. When I met you guys,” she informed him.

“ _Hmm_ ,” he hummed, going silent almost immediately as he focused back on the TV.

“I uh… I just got out of a relationship too. It kind of messed me up a little,” she told him truthfully.

“Yeah?” He asked, looking over at her again.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Sorry to hear,” he said simply and somehow it was comforting.

“Yeah, you too,” she told him and he nodded. Seconds later she saw a small smile form on his lips from the corner of her eye and she couldn’t help but smile too.

From that moment on, she had high hopes of a great friendship developing between the two of them, secretly hoping it might evolve into something more.


	5. Four

**June 2011**

Monday passed without a sign of Harry. He didn’t work and Andie hadn’t seen him from across the street at Louis’ house either. Tuesday she spent another day off of work, appreciating the time when she didn’t have to play nice with the people in the community at her new grocery store job. The only downfall was the boredom she was subjected to at her father’s house. There was nothing on TV and nothing much else to do. He didn’t even have _Netflix_ or even a DVD collection. She was sure he only ever watched his television for the news and checking the stock market. Andie even seriously considered working up the nerve to go to Harry’s house to see if he wanted to hang out, but talked herself out of it. She still felt a little bit awkward after the kiss they shared.

Andie was sure her father had something in his big house for her to do. And in all her exploration, all she could come up with was an old Jane Fonda exercise tape one of his ex-wives must have left behind. Reluctantly, she popped it in the VCR and pressed play. The tape came to life, displaying men and women in tight bright spandex leotards dancing along to a particularly horrid upbeat 80’s song.

Andie stood there for a few minutes, feeling embarrassed to be even watching it, let alone doing the exercises. But after zoning out the world around her, she actually found herself following along, getting rather into it. It wasn’t half bad.

“ _Ahem_ , Miss Andria. A visitor…” she heard Mrs. Tate from behind her.

Andie turned quickly, startled by her presence. She noticed almost immediately the wild haired boy behind her.

_Harry._

Damn it. Did he really just catch her aerobicizing with Jane Fonda? Andie quickly grabbed for the remote and shut the TV off.

“Uh, hey,” Andie said to Harry as he stood there smirking at her once Mrs. Tate left the two of them alone.

“ _Heeeyy_ there,” he said, his smile mischievous.

“Don’t say a word,” she warned him immediately.

“What? I wasn’t going to say anything. Except for maybe, _‘work it, girl’_ ,” he laughed with a snap of his fingers.

“I said, not a word,” she said, pointing at him.

“I had to,” he laughed, walking deeper into the living room, plopping down on the couch.

“You have no idea how _boring_ it is here,” she told him, still standing in the same spot.

“Clearly,” he chuckled.

“You don’t work today?” She asked, changing the subject on purpose.

“I try to work as little as possible. You’ll learn that about me. My parents are the ones who made me get the job to stay out of trouble. But you know what?” He started to explain.

“What?”

“I like to get into trouble,” he said with a smirk. She smiled at him and rolled her eyes.

“Speaking of – the reason I came over here, and I am so glad I did because, _yeah_ —” Harry said pointing at the TV and then her, bringing up her embarrassing moment without words.

“Shut up,” Andie grumbled under her breath.

“Anyway, Louis’ having a party tonight,” Harry mentioned.

“Another one?” She asked, knitting her eyebrows together in question. It was the middle of the week. Did he even have parents?

“You’ll learn that about Louis – his parents are always in the Hamptons and he likes to throw parties when they’re gone,” Harry explained.

“Ah, I see,” she said, nodding in comprehension.

“You in?” He asked.

“Sure. What else do you think I have to do?” She asked, smirking at him.

“You know… you have a perfectly good pool in the backyard,” Harry said, pointing to the large windows looking over the backyard. The pool sat there gleaming in the sun.

“I thought about it, but I mean, it’s boring without other people to swim with,” Andie told him.

“ _Pssh,_ you’re in luck. Are you so happy I came over or what?” Harry asked, pointing at himself.

“You want to go swimming with me?” She asked him skeptically.

“Does it look like I have a massive swimming pool in my backyard?” He asked and she gave him a questioning look because she actually didn’t know if he did.

“The answer is ‘no’. No, Andie, I do not have a massive swimming pool in my backyard,” Harry said with a laugh.

“Oh, alright. I mean, if you want to, we can go swimming,” she laughed, rolling her eyes at his humor. She liked how the awkwardness she felt about the kiss they shared two days prior just melted away now that he was in her presence again.

“I hope you don’t mind seeing me in my boxers then,” he said with a sly smirk.

“Uh, n-no, that’s fine,” she stammered as her cheeks heated up with a whole new feeling of awkwardness.

“Alright,” he laughed, standing up from the couch.

“I’ve uh, I’ve gotta go change into my swimsuit. You can… you can go out there if you want. I won’t be long,” she told him.

“Alright,” he said, moving toward the back door.

Andie hurried her way through to the foyer and ran up the large staircase two-by-two, not wanting to keep the attractive boy waiting too long. As she dug through her dresser drawers, pulling out every swimsuit she brought along, she wondered which one she would look best in. Her plain white bikini was her favorite and most flattering, but her tan was mostly non-existent, and that swimsuit looked best on sun-kissed skin. Her blue bikini with rainbows on the top seemed a bit too childish to her in the moment, so she decided on her last choice – the red bikini with little white polka dots. It would have to do. She really needed to go swimsuit shopping if Harry was going to pop by for a swim like this.

She undressed and then redressed into the bikini. Without wasting another moment, she ran into her bathroom and took a razor to her legs, shaving as quickly as possible. Not that there was much there to shave away. She kept up with it pretty regularly. She fixed her ponytail in the mirror before taking a gulp of mouthwash, swishing it around and spitting it into the sink. A minute later she was dashing down the stairs toward the back door. She took a deep breath before sliding it open and making her way out.

Harry was already undressed down to his black boxer briefs, which _holy shit –_ tight boxer briefs. It left next to nothing up to the imagination, and _holy shit_ , what a monster.

“Hey,” she said, walking up to him, hoping that she wouldn’t be too awkward around him.

“Hey— _wow_ ,” he said as his eyes dipped down her frame. She felt her cheeks warm with blush almost immediately.

“Uh, red’s a good color on you,” he said with a smile.

“Thanks,” she said, trying to pretend her voice hadn’t squeaked out the word.

“Ready to swim?” He asked, and she noticed his eyes drop down her body again.

“Sure,” she said, smiling bashfully, walking around him to get to the steps leading into the pool.

“Ah, you’re no fun,” Harry laughed.

“What?” She questioned, using her hand to shield the sun from her eyes.

“You gotta jump right in,” he said as he took a few steps back and did a running jump into the deep end.

She couldn’t help but smile at his hyper-active display, watching as he surfaced quickly, whipping the hair out of his face with a single motion of his head. _Seriously, so hot_.

“I’m afraid I lack your enthusiasm,” Andie said dryly as she dipped her feet into the chilly water. Harry let out a loud laugh and swam toward her.

“Am I going to have to _make_ you have a good time with me, Andria?” He asked, coming up next to her as she walked into the pool slowly.

“No. No, Harry,” she said, watching him carefully as he got closer and closer.

“C’mon,” he said, eyeing her.

“ _Harry_ ,” she said in a warning tone, taking a few steps away from him, to no avail. He grabbed her by the legs, catching her in his arms as she fell backward.

“Harry!” She screeched as he cradled her in his arms, bringing her deeper and deeper into the pool.

“You can swim, can’t you? I’m not going to let go of you if you can’t swim,” Harry told her.

“And if I tell you I can’t, you won’t let me go?” She asked, looking into his eyes. _God_ , they were _so_ close.

“You can’t?” He questioned.

“No, I can. But I don’t want you to let me go,” she told him with a breath of a laugh.

“ _Oh, Andria_. I _knew_ we hit it off,” he gushed comically and she rolled her eyes, slapping the water to make it splash in his face.

“ _Andria!_ I’m going to throw you in!” Harry threatened playfully, moving her in his arms like he was about to.

“No, _Harry_. It’s cold in here!” She protested.

“Oh, you baby!” Harry said, letting go of her legs, dropping them into the water.

“Harry!” She shrieked again, not letting her arms drop away from his neck.

“Are your feet touching?” He chuckled.

“No!” She snapped.

“Well, let go,” he laughed as he held her hips with his hands – their chests sandwich together. She was slowly realizing it was the closest they’d been to one another… _ever_.

The moment got serious in a split second as she looked at him and he looked back. She could feel his warm breath on her face and as all her senses began working again, she could noticeably feel his bulge pressed against her. Her arms loosened considerably from around his neck and she slid down his body further into the water, finally able to touch her toes to the bottom.

“You get used to it,” Harry said, and her mind spun, having just been thinking about his penis against her body.

“What?” She choked out, feeling mortified.

“The water. You get used to it after a while,” he said, smirking at her, making her think that maybe he really _was_ talking about his penis.

“Oh, yeah. Uh, it’s fine,” she said, using the moment to escape from her embarrassing thoughts. She decided to just dive in. And she did, swimming away from Harry.

The two of them splashed around the pool for an hour before moving toward the hot tub. She felt like she might lose it when she watched him get out of the swimming pool and she could see all of his _definition_ through his boxer briefs. _Jesus Christ_. The scalding water helped to calm her nerves. Her hormones were ridiculously heightened in his presence and she wondered if he was affected at all by the pheromones she was giving off. Then she wondered if maybe she was so hot and bothered because she was affected by his.

“Are you really going back to Las Vegas when the summer ends?” Harry asked, looking slightly disappointed as he sat across from her in the hot tub.

“Yeah. It’s home,” she told him truthfully.

“Bummer for all of us,” Harry said, sort of under his breath.

“For all of who?” She asked, quirking her eyebrow as she watched him.

“Me and the wonderful patrons of _Midland Park Foods_ , of course. You know those old folks from the retirement home are going to miss your sunny disposition,” Harry told her with a humorous smile.

“Right,” she laughed out loud, appreciating the fondness in his eyes as he watched her.

“There’s still over two months left of the summer. Plenty of time for us to get into trouble together… since you’re into that sort of thing,” she told him, smirking playfully at him.

“My kind of girl,” Harry said, smiling widely, causing butterflies to take flight in her stomach.

It would be much easier to avoid her feelings for him if he stopped saying things like that.

…

For some reason, unbeknownst to Andie, Harry seemed to _like_ hanging out with her. He spent the rest of the afternoon with her, which led to the two of them finishing the Jane Fonda exercise tape together. Harry of course was completely commando underneath his skinny jeans due to his boxers being wet from the pool, which wore on Andie’s mind throughout the next couple of hours.

Harry gave her shit for telling him she didn’t have any pets when Mrs. Tate let Duke outside to go to the bathroom and then he came barreling back into the house when she let him back in, wanting their attention. She had to explain how this wasn’t her _actual_ home, so Duke technically wasn’t her pet, even though she was completely in love with the dog after two short weeks.

Later in the day, the two of them raided her father’s fridge together, trying to find something to eat for dinner. And then when it was time to get ready for the party, Harry hung out in Andie’s room, lounging on her bed with Duke as he flipped through channels on the big screen TV while she got ready in the bathroom.

Andie figured casual would suit her best for the party – deciding on a yellow crop top that showed off just a bit of her midriff and a pair of light blue ripped jeans.

“Are you almost ready?” She heard Harry whine from the bedroom.

“You can go without me. I’m a big girl. I can walk myself across the street,” she sassed him as she pulled the straightener through her long blonde locks.

“Just… hurry up,” he said finally.

“Almost done,” she reassured him.

As Andie and Harry made their way back down the stairs with Duke trailing at their feet, Andie was startled to see her father walking into the foyer from the living room.

“Oh, hi,” Andie said, looking almost shell-shocked to see him out of his office.

“Hello, darling,” he said, which never sounded genuine – like it was something he was conditioned to say by his long list of ex-wives.

“Uh, I’m just going to go to uh, the neighbor’s house for a little while,” she told him.

“And who, may I ask, is this?” Her father asked, looking at Harry.

“Uh, this is my friend Harry. We work together at the grocery store,” Andie informed him.

“Harry,” her father said, shaking his hand.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Harry said formally, which of course, Andie found endearing.

“Were you just in my daughter’s bedroom, Harry?” Her father asked him sternly, narrowing his eyes.

“Dad!” Andie snapped, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I was, sir. But I can assure you it was completely platonic,” Harry told him. Andie’s face burned with blush and she absolutely hated the word ‘platonic’ coming from Harry’s mouth, especially in reference to being with her.

“We’re leaving,” Andie said, guiding Harry toward the front door.

“Be back by eleven,” her father said as they were walking out.

“Midnight!” Andie called back.

“Eleven-thirty,” her father retorted.

“ _Midnight_ ,” Andie said in a sing-song voice and she shut the door, effectively shutting her father out.

“ _Jeesh_. Is he always like that?” Harry asked as they walked down the long driveway.

“Unfortunately. Actually, I’ve never actually seen him react to me having a boy over,” Andie said with a shrug.

“Next time we’ll have to do a better job of sneaking,” Harry told her, and the words _next time_ reverberated in her head.

“Believe me, this was a first. He’s usually hibernating in his office. Cool parents like Louis’ summer in the Hampton’s. My father works every second of every day of his life. That was literally the most I’ve heard him talk outside of his office, probably ever. Our conversations are usually very short,” Andie explained.

“Sounds… interesting,” Harry said as they reached the large fence, the two of them leaving out the smaller pedestrian gate.

“Not so much,” Andie said as they continued across the street to Louis’.

Andie wasn’t really sure what Harry meant by this party being smaller than the last, because it almost felt like there were _more_ people. Like more kids were able to get out of their house without their parents getting suspicious of them going to a party because it was a Tuesday or something.

The party was in full swing and Harry led Andie toward the kitchen, where again, another keg was tapped. She briefly wondered how much Louis, or his parents respectively, spent overall on kegs for these parties. It had to be some ridiculous sum.

“You should be charging like, five bucks a cup for this beer. You’d be making bank,” Andie told Louis as they stood in the kitchen by the keg.

“Ha, yeah. Fuck all of you. Give me five dollars,” a very tipsy Louis shouted out to all the people in the vicinity.

“Louis’ step-father is an investment banker and his mom is an heiress to a big pharmaceutical corporation. There’s no shortage of money in this family,” Harry informed her.

“Ah, I see,” she said, feeling out of place.

Her own mother wasn’t poor, but she wasn’t exactly _rich_. Not like these kids. What extra money they had while she was growing up came from the child support checks from her father and the money her mother got from the divorce. She felt completely out of place living in her father’s big mansion.

“Is everybody in this town rich?” She asked Harry.

“I mean, sure it’s a wealthy town, but we’re not all as rich as people like Louis,” Harry told her.

“What do your parent’s do for a living? Or, I mean… you don’t have to answer that. I’m sorry,” she asked, before feeling like a complete idiot. Who asks something like that? Was it really any of her business?

“Nah, it’s okay. My step-dad owns a car dealership and my mom’s a preschool teacher at a private Christian school,” he explained.

“So you have _normal_ parents,” she said, smiling at him. She almost loved the fact that he came from a somewhat middle class family.

“Yeah, unfortunately I have a rather boring lineage,” Harry said with a laugh.

“Your mom works at a Christian school, huh? Is that why you’re such a rebel? Kind of like a preacher’s daughter or something – you like doing things you’re not supposed to,” she quipped.

“Yeah. You got me,” Harry laughed out loud and she couldn’t help but appreciate his laugh.

“Yeah, my parents have tried to push the super Christian lifestyle on us – ever since we were kids. My younger brothers are more accepting of it. Christian even sings in the choir at church,” Harry explained.

“With a name like that, it’s almost like he _has_ to,” Andie joked.

“Right. I think they did that on purpose,” Harry laughed.

“While you’re the beer drinking, cigarette smoking, potty-mouthed son. _Confess your sins to me, my child_ ,” she giggled, feeling like the alcohol was going straight to her brain. Harry laughed as he watched her.

“Well, first and foremost, I have to confess that I’ve looked down your shirt more than once tonight,” he said, smirking devilishly at her as his eyes dropped down to her cleavage.

“Hey!” She yelped, back-handing him lightly across the chest, causing him to laugh.

“And _wow_ —today in the pool. That _itty bitty polka dot bikini_ …” Harry went on, causing her to scoff and glare at him, but was unable to keep the smile off her face.

“I can’t say I didn’t look,” Harry told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Enough, enough,” she laughed blithely.

“Too much for your virgin ears? I haven’t even gotten to my dirty thoughts yet,” Harry laughed.

“ _Wow_ ,” Andie sighed, shaking her head, feeling both flattered and flaunted.

“Andie!” They heard Janessa shout as she came into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Andie said, smiling at her new friend.

“You came! I’m so glad you came!” Janessa said, draping her arms around Andie for a hug.

“I came,” Andie said and heard Harry snicker. She looked up, sending him a playful glare and he laughed before walking off, leaving her with a very drunk Janessa.

“You’re here… _with Harry_ ,” Janessa said, whispering the last part very loudly.

“Uh, we’re here, but we’re not here together,” Andie told her.

“Louis said Harry hasn’t left your side… _oops_ , up until now. Am I a cock-block? Did I just cock-block?” Janessa asked, looking around for Harry.

“It’s alright. You’re not… we’re not… it’s not like that,” Andie stammered, trying to set her straight.

“He’s single, you know,” Janessa continued.

“As you’ve told me before,” Andie deadpanned, smiling at her friend.

“And he’s _sooo cu-ute_. You two would be so _cu-ute_ together!” Janessa said, drunkenly exaggerating her words.

“We’re just friends. I promise,” Andie tried to explain.

“Friends with benefits?” Janessa asked, sending her an exaggerated wink.

“Oh my god. No. Nothing like that,” Andie sighed.

“It’s alright. You’ve got all summer. Harry’s good people,” Janessa said matter-of-factly.

Andie caught Harry’s eye from the dining room and he made a silly face at her. She glared at him in response for leaving her to fend off the very drunk Janessa all by herself. Harry just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Where’s your drink?” Janessa asked, seeing that Andie didn’t have one.

“Uh, I finished it.”

“What? Get another one!” Janessa insisted.

“I mean…” Andie started to say. She didn’t really feel like getting drunk. She had to be home by midnight after all.

“Sasha, can you pour Andie one of those too?” Janessa asked the girl Andie met at the first party she went to. Sasha looked up at the two of them with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Andie’s a big girl. She can get her own,” she said, dropping the keg tap hose before walking away with her beer.

_Jesus Christ_. She’d seen the movie _Mean Girls_ , but never actually experienced one in real life. Sasha was a full-fledged bitch.

“She’s got a stick up her ass, I swear. You’ll get used to it,” Janessa said as she walked to the keg and poured Andie a beer, handing it to her.

Twenty minutes later as Andie was making her way back through the party after a bathroom break, she spotted Harry out on the patio smoking and made her way toward him.

“Um, thanks for ditching me with Drunks McGee,” Andie quipped at Harry. She really liked Janessa, just not so much the over-the-top drunk Janessa.

“Funny thing is – her last name actually is McGee,” Harry said, smiling at her.

“Is it really?” She asked with a laugh.

“No. It’s Riley,” he chuckled and she laughed, swatting at him.

...

As the night progressed, Andie met a whole new set of Louis and Harry’s friends while playing drinking games and overall having a great time. At some point Andie again lost Harry – not that she was clinging to him or anything. But it was nice to have at least one person she was comfortable with while she was in a sea of unfamiliar faces.

“Hey,” she heard a guy say and she turned to acknowledge him.

“Hey,” she said just loud enough for him to hear her over the music. He was really cute and he was smiling from ear-to-ear at her.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Um, it’s Andie. Short for Andria,” she said, figuring introducing herself with both of her names was more productive than having to go through the explanation after they looked at her oddly.

“Nice to meet you, Andie - short for Andria,” he said and she snorted out a laugh. _Cheesy_ , yet funny. She liked it.

“I’m Liam,” he went on to introduce himself, holding his hand out.

“Hi, Liam. Nice to meet you,” she greeted him, shaking his hand.

He was absolutely gorgeous with a perfect crop of brown hair atop his head, beautiful eyes and a knee-weakening smile. At that point, she was sure Louis didn’t have _any_ ugly friends.

“I’ve never seen you before. How do you know Louis?” Liam asked curiously.

“How does Louis know _any_ of these people?” Andie quipped, looking around the room at all the kids dancing, drinking and talking. Liam gave her an odd look and she let out a laugh.

“Sorry. This is the second one of Louis’ parties that I’ve been to and it still baffles me that he could possibly know all these people,” Andie said with a laugh.

“Ha! Yeah. Louis’ a friendly guy. I don’t think he has a personal relationship with all of them or anything. Mostly, they’re kids from school, you know?” Liam explained. She figured as much.

“Um, I’m his neighbor. That’s how I know him,” Andie said, finally answering his question.

“Really? Are you new around here?” He asked, looking intrigued.

“Uh, yeah. I’m staying here for the summer. I’ve been here for a few weeks, I guess,” she explained.

“Oh, yeah? Where are you from?”

“Um, Nevada,” she told him.

“Wow. This must be a totally new experience for you then. Have you been to New York yet?” He asked.

“No, not yet. I need to plan a trip soon though,” she told him with a smile.

“ _PAYNO!”_ They heard Louis scream a moment later, jumping on Liam’s back, causing his beer to splash up onto Andie’s shirt.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Andie hissed as the cold liquid hit her chest.

“Oh, _shiiiiit!”_ Louis yelped as he immediately dropped off of Liam’s back.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry,” Liam gasped, looking horrified.

“Andie, babe. I’m sorry,” Louis said, holding his fist against his mouth with a perma-shocked expression on his face.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” she said, pulling the wet fabric away from her chest. Luckily Liam didn’t have much beer left in his cup, so she wasn’t completely drenched or anything, but it absolutely sucked.

“I’m _so_ sorry,” Liam said again.

“It’s really okay, I swear. I’m just… I’m gonna go clean myself up,” she told them.

“Let me know if you want me to grab you another shirt!” Louis called after her and she waved at him as she snaked through the crowd to find the bathroom.

She now smelled like a brewery, but she was certain nobody would notice because they were all drunk.

She managed to dry up her shirt until it was just a damp spot on the front of it. She figured it was the best she was going to do. So she washed her hands and left the bathroom. Once she stepped into the dark hallway, it was hard to adjust her eyes after being in the harsh light of the bathroom. A few steps later, her clumsy ass ran into a couple making out against the wall.

“ _Shit_ —I’m sorry,” Andie apologized immediately, hoping she hadn’t disturbed them too much.

“Andie?” She heard and looked up to see that Harry was, in fact, the male participant sucking face in the hallway. _Ugh, whyyyy?_

“H-Harry…” She gasped as her heart dropped into her ass, so _very_ disappointed.

“ _Heyyy_ ,” he cooed, smiling widely when he saw her.

She realized in that moment how incredibly drunk he managed to get in the few hours they were at the party. But then again, she did watch him play multiple games of beer pong where his team wasn’t exactly doing all that well.

“Uh, hey,” she said, feeling uncomfortable as the girl he was with stared her down.

“Hey, this is Andie… I came here with Andie,” Harry slurred as he told the girl, who was looking more and more offended the more Harry spoke.

“Uh, we didn’t come here together, Harry. We just walked here together, _platonically,_ ” she said, using his word from earlier in the night.

“Platonically,” Harry repeated, looking at Andie questioningly, almost like he didn’t understand the word.

“Feel free to continue,” Andie said, walking away from them.

She shouldn’t have felt the amount of anger and jealousy she did, but it could not have been helped. No matter how many times she told herself she wasn’t going to get attached to people in New Jersey or start some doomed love affair, she couldn’t help the major crush she developed on him in just two short weeks. The way he constantly flirted with her was entirely too intoxicating.

And her anger stemmed from the fact that when he kissed her just a few days prior, he made the excuse that he was just getting out of a relationship and wasn’t ready to be kissing _anyone_ , let alone making out with them up against walls. _Yeah, ohhh-kay, buddy_.

She joined up with Janessa and some of her group of friends out on the patio and tried to continue to enjoy herself without Harry. He certainly was doing just fine without her.

“You good, Andie?” Louis asked her.

“Hmm?” She questioned, snapping out of her angry thoughts.

“Are you okay? You know, your shirt,” he said, tugging at the front of his shirt to remind her.

“Oh. Oh, yeah. I’m fine. It’s okay,” she told him, sliding her hand across the damp spot.

“I really am sorry,” Liam told her again.

“Yeah, seriously,” Louis told her.

“What the hell did you guys do to her?” Janessa asked the two of them with a look of disappointment on her face.

“I just got some beer spilled on me. It’s fine,” Andie said, smiling at her to convince her she was okay.

“Were you two fucking around again?” Janessa asked, looking at Louis.

“Um, maybe,” Louis said with a smirk on his face and Liam let out a laugh.

“Of course you were,” Janessa scoffed out a laugh and rolled her eyes.

“You know me so well, baby,” Louis said, wrapping his arm around her, nudging his nose into her cheek before he kissed her.

“ _Louis, Louis_!” Janessa shrieked, laughing as he comically gave her a few big wet kisses. Andie couldn’t help but smile. They were so cute together.

About five minutes later, Harry came out on the patio. Andie’s eyes met his from across the way and it took everything she had in her to look away from him. She didn’t want to see his swollen make-out lips or the guilty look in his eyes – was that guilt or was it something else entirely? She didn’t care. Not one bit. She didn’t care about Harry Styles.

“Hey,” Harry said, sitting down next to her.

“Hey,” she replied, trying to play down her stupid emotions.

“What are you up to?” He asked just low enough for her to hear.

“Just hanging out,” she said as she took another sip of her beer.

“Alright,” he said quietly.

When she looked down at her phone to see it was nearing midnight, she slid her chair back and stood up, bidding the group adieu. She was met with a chorus of “stay’s” and “don’t go’s” and she told them she’d be around all summer. When she finally turned to leave, she noticed Harry standing next to her.

“I’ll walk you,” Harry offered her.

“It’s alright,” she replied, still feeling annoyed with him.

“I insist,” he retorted.

“Fine,” she snapped, walking ahead of him.

“We can go this way,” Harry told her, resting his hand on the small of her back, guiding her toward the side of the house.

When they reached the yard, Andie stopped to take off her flip flops, wanting to feel the grass between her toes. Harry stopped to watch her.

“Did you have fun tonight?” He asked, swaying drunkly on his feet.

“Yes. _Did you?”_ She asked, her response coming out cold.

“Did I do something wrong?” He asked, furrowing his brows in question.

“No,” she said, trying to sound indifferent.

Of course she was disappointed that she found Harry making out with another girl, but more than anything, the disappointment stemmed from the fact that it wasn’t _her_ making out with him.

“Does this have to do with that girl, because I didn’t even know her name—” Harry started to explain, causing Andie to scoff.

“ _She_ kissed _me_ ,” Harry continued.

“Looked like it,” Andie scoffed under her breath, and she knew she was being petty and stupid and unfair, but her impaired brain didn’t care.

“Wait a second,” Harry said, catching her by her elbow before pulling her back to him.

“Harry, I have to get home,” she said, trying not to snap at him again.

“Were you jealous?” Harry asked, a massive smirk turning up his lips.

“What? _No_ ,” she scoffed, looking at him absurdly.

“Were you _jealous_ , Andria?” Harry teased, smirking wildly as he walked her backward until her back bumped into the side of the house.

“Harry, it’s almost midnight,” Andie protested.

“Your dad loves me. He’ll understand,” Harry said drunkly.

“You’re delusional,” she sighed, pressing her palm to his chest as he stood in front of her, completely invading her bubble, yet she did nothing to push him away. Because _why would she?_

“Stop changing the subject, _Andria_ ,” Harry cooed.

“You’re drunk,” she countered.

“And you’re a master deflector, I see,” he laughed.

“Just because I don’t want to answer a crazy question?” She scoffed.

“Just because you wish it was you who I was kissing,” he said with a sly smile.

“ _Jesus_. I didn’t know you were so incredibly narcissistic,” she scoffed, but she couldn’t help her smile.

Harry stayed silent, but watched her, and she watched him back, her breath hitching in her throat when his face neared hers. When their lips met, she felt giddy. She felt _stupid_ , but giddy.

She was waiting for him to pull away quickly like he did before, but this time he didn’t. This time both their lips moved in a perfect pliable rhythm before sliding their tongues together. She felt Harry’s fingers tighten at her waist, pulling her in closer as the kiss deepened. She almost couldn’t believe she was _actually_ kissing him. She knew it was just some stupid drunken kiss he might not even remember in the morning, but it still meant something to her.

When they finally broke apart, she whispered something about needing to be home, causing him to smile at her.

“Alright, Cinderella. Let’s get you home,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he guided her the rest of the way through the yard.

She couldn’t help but smile at his quip about her being Cinderella. She was always her favorite princess.


	6. Five

**June 2011**

By the weekend, Janessa called to invite Andie to the beach with her and some friends. Andie had to work that morning, but she told Janessa she’d think about it, depending on how she felt after work.

“No, it’s perfect. I have to go visit my grandma, so I can just pick you up on my way to the beach. When do you get off?” Janessa asked, sounding excited.

“Uh, I should be home around one,” she told her.

“Perfect! I’ll see you then!” Janessa said, ending the call before Andie had a chance to protest.

Apparently she was going to the beach and she had no say in the matter. Though Andie couldn’t help but feel happy that she found friends that really wanted to spend time with her. She’d only known them for three weeks, but it was like they’d known each other for years.

After work, Andie went home to gather her stuff for the beach and change into her swimsuit. She found a cute tropical print bikini on Thursday at _Target_ and was really happy with how it looked on her. She threw on a loose tank top and shorts over it before grabbing her bag with her towel, sunscreen, cell phone and keys in it. By the time she was ready, Janessa was already waiting at the gate for her in her red convertible.

When they got to the lake, Andie noticed people from their group right away. Louis was chasing Liam onto the dock before Liam did a cannonball off of it, with Louis following shortly after. Niall and Caitlyn were wading in the water near the dock. And Harry sat on a towel on the beach drinking water with that ridiculous girl Sasha by his side. Andie’s jealousy flared up inside of her, but she did her best to squash it because she was just being stupid. Although Sasha had been nothing but a bitch to her since Andie met her.

As they walked through the sand toward Harry and Sasha, Andie noticed a few of their other friends scattered around and wondered if any of them ever did anything alone. But then again, life was better with people you loved in it.

“Hey, guys,” Janessa said as the two of them walked up.

“Oh, hey,” Harry said, his vision immediately meeting Andie’s.

She looked away, quickly dropping her sunglasses over her eyes from the top of her head. She blushed just thinking about how stupid the jealousy was that raged inside of her at the sight of him and Sasha even sitting next to each other. It made her uncomfortable. When she looked back over at them, Sasha held a scowl on her face as she stared at Andie. Harry, on the other hand, was still smiling at her and it made her feel even more awkward.

They hadn’t seen each other since he kissed her against the side of Louis’ house just a few days prior, which surprised her because she figured they might have run into each other at work. But for the remainder of the week, they worked opposite days. It gave Andie more time to think about the kiss and about the way Harry acted around her. She was certain he liked her. She could see it every time he looked at her. Plus, if he didn’t like her, he would have never kissed her when he realized she was jealous after making out with that other girl at the party. Or, you know, the first time.

“I see my boyfriend is already being a dipshit,” Janessa said, looking out toward the dock at Louis and Liam wrestling each other to try to be the first one to get the other one in the water.

“He always is,” Harry said with a snort of a laugh. Andie couldn’t help but chuckle even though she really liked how Louis was. She’d never had such an outgoing, carefree, goofy friend before.

“Sasha! Come in the water!” Caitlyn yelled to her friend before she waved happily at Andie.

“Hi!” Caitlyn said a moment later and Andie shouted the same greeting back at her as she too waved.

Sasha scoffed under her breath as she got up and walked toward Caitlyn and Niall, strutting her ass like she was some sort of goddamn supermodel in her purple bikini - most likely for Harry’s benefit. But when Andie looked over at Harry, he was looking down at his water bottle, peeling off the label and it made her smile. She quietly sprawled her towel out in the sand and dropped her bag down on it.

“Babe!” Louis yelled when he finally saw Janessa. He jogged up to her quickly and threatened to wrap his wet arms around her.

“No! Babe, _no!_ You’re gonna get my coverup wet!” Janessa shrieked, holding her arms out at length to keep him back. Instead, Louis decided to shake his hair out like a wet dog, causing Janessa to screech.

“You asshole,” Harry scoffed, thrusting out his leg to kick Louis in the shin, but it only made Louis laugh harder.

Andie pulled her tank top off, using it to wipe off the water on her face from Louis before she tossed it onto her towel. She shimmied out of her jean shorts next and adjusted her bathing suit before looking up at her friends. Her entire body blushed when she caught Harry watching her. With absolutely no shame, his lips turned up into a smile and she couldn’t help but smile back, rolling her eyes at him.

She thought about his comment at Louis’ party about him appreciating her in her _teeny-weeny-polka-dot-bikini_ \- or however that saying goes.

“Come on, babe. Come swimming with me,” Louis said, tugging on Janessa’s arm once she took her coverup off.

“ _Louis_ ,” she shrieked, but she let him pull her along.

“Hey,” Harry said, smiling over at Andie.

“Hey,” she said, smiling back as she got her sunscreen out and began to apply it to her arms.

“Didn’t know you’d be here,” he told her.

“Uh, yeah. Janessa invited me,” she told him as she applied the sunscreen to her chest and she looked up at him just in time to catch his eyes on her hand that rubbed across the tops of her boobs. She choked out a laugh and he looked up at her.

“What?” He asked, smirking at her.

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head, biting back her smile. _Typical male_.

“Thought you worked today,” Harry told her and her stomach flipped, realizing he still checked her schedule.

“I did. I just got off,” she told him and watched as he nodded his head.

“Need some help?” He offered, watching as she wiped the sunscreen across her shoulders.

“Uh… um, sure,” she said, realizing she’d never be able to get her back. She planned on having Janessa help her, but she was shrieking in the water as Louis grabbed onto her and threatened to throw her in.

Harry crawled over Sasha and Janessa’s towels to get to her and positioned himself behind her, his legs splaying out around her. She handed him the sunscreen and heard as he squirted some in his palm before rubbing it in his hands to warm it. When he finally touched her, her skin tingled and goosebumps arose on her skin. Harry worked the sunscreen across her back, even sliding his hands under her bikini straps to give her maximum SPF protection. When his fingers dipped slightly beneath the waistband of her bikini bottoms to do the same, she involuntarily arched her back away from him and let out a laugh.

“Sorry,” Harry said with a chuckle.

“No. It’s fine. It just startled me,” she laughed, shaking her head.

“Well, you’re all done,” he told her as he slid his legs away from her and got up on his knees, wiping his hands on his swim trunks.

“Thank you,” she said, turning to smile at him.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a nod as he stood up.

“Wanna swim?” He asked a moment later.

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” she said and watched as he held his hands out for her, helping her off the towel.

...

Andie had no idea how long they were planning on staying at the beach, but when they all piled into Louis’ luxury speed boat later that day, she knew they’d be there for a while. She put her stuff in Janessa’s car, only bringing her towel with her in the boat because she was certain she wasn’t going to need her phone or keys, and didn’t want to accidentally drop either of them in the lake.

“C’mon,” Harry said, grabbing Andie’s hand, tugging her with him toward Louis’ boat that was already filled with Niall, Caitlyn, Janessa, and Louis. The girl’s made room for Andie on the back couch with them while Harry walked up to the front and plopped down on one of the couches with Niall.

There was another boat that seemed to be their friend Eric’s boat that had some of their other friends on it, but that boat literally had nothing on the luxury that Louis’ exuded.

“Liam, _let’s go!”_ Louis called to him.

“Just a minute,” he yelled, grabbing his stuff out of the sand.

As Sasha began walking down to the dock, Andie let out a groan. She did not want to spend any more time with her than necessary. And she was certain once she got on the boat, she would sit right next to Harry and be glued to him for the rest of the day.

“Can we go before she gets on this boat?” Andie grumbled, causing her friends to snicker.

“ _LEEEE-UMMM!”_ Louis bellowed.

“Coming!” He yelled in response as he ran onto the dock, bypassing Sasha quickly before jumping in with his friends.

“Boats full, sorry,” Louis told Sasha as he hit the throttle, immediately launching the boat toward open water. All of them laughed loudly as Sasha stood at the end of the dock shouting _‘fuck you’_ at Louis.

“Did you see how I got Sasha away from Harry when you showed up?” Caitlyn leaned over and asked Andie.

“Uh. Yeah. That was on purpose?” Andie chuckled.

“Yeah. _Duh_. She’s trying pretty hard to snatch his ass up. He’s like, her summer conquest, I think,” Caitlyn told her, causing Andie’s stomach to churn. Harry was fair game, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t jealous.

“She’s literally making a fool out of herself, honestly. Like, she’s foaming at the mouth to constantly be in his presence,” Janessa giggled.

Andie looked up at the front of the boat where the guys were, finding Harry immediately. He was lounging across the couch he was on, laughing at something funny Liam was saying. He was so good looking, it was distracting.

“Are you talking about Sasha?” Louis asked, looking back at the girls from his spot at the wheel.

“Yes,” Janessa said, rolling her eyes.

“She tries way too hard. Harry literally couldn’t give two shits about her,” Louis said, smiling over at Andie.

“Okay,” Andie snickered, sending him an odd look.

Like, why was he looking at her when he said that? She and Harry literally weren’t anything but friends. Though, she really liked the kiss they shared a few days earlier. And their first kiss was good too if she disregarded the fact that he freaked out a little bit because of it.

“You two would literally be _sooo_ cute together,” Caitlyn cooed at Andie.

“Yeah. And obviously Harry thinks you’re a total babe or else he’d be as indifferent to you as he is of Sasha,” Janessa snickered.

Maybe he was indifferent to Sasha for the pure fact that she really didn’t have a lot going for her in the brains department. She only ever talked about shopping, getting a tan and how popular she was on _Twitter_.

The other boat quickly caught up to them once they reached the sandbar and Louis anchored the boat. Eric anchored next to him and one of the guys on that boat turned on a bluetooth speaker, playing some sort of radio-friendly rock music.

Andie watched from the back of the boat as Harry stood up tossing his shirt over his head before he made gimme-fingers at Louis when he pulled a cigarette from his pack. Louis tossed him the pack and lit up his cigarette, Harry doing the same right after him. A few of the other guys were smoking on the other boat too and it was like second-hand smoke overload.

“ _Ugh_ ,” Andie groaned a few minutes later, feeling like she was being suffocated.

“Yeah. It’s disgusting,” Caitlyn said as she stood up, adjusting her swimsuit.

“C’mon. Let’s swim,” Janessa said as she climbed over the couch to get onto the back deck of the boat.

Caitlyn and Andie followed and the three of them sat on the deck with their feet dangling in the water.

“Why is the water so much colder here than it was by the beach?” Caitlyn asked with a sad face.

“Jump in,” Harry said and the three of them quickly turned their heads to look at him.

“ _You_ jump in,” Andie countered immediately.

“Only if you’re coming with me,” Harry said, smirking as he cocked his eyebrow at her.

“Ha!” She laughed and rolled her eyes.

“Make some room. Make some room,” Harry said as he came out on the deck with them. Caitlyn moved over so Harry had an easy shot to the water.

“Ready?” Harry asked with a smirk as walked up to the edge and turned his back to the water.

“Let’s see what you got, Styles,” Janessa told him. He smiled before looking down at Andie, bouncing his eyebrows.

A moment later he sprung himself backward off the boat, doing a backflip into the water.

“What a show off,” Caitlyn chuckled.

“He’s showing off for you. Did you see that little look he gave you?” Janessa said to Andie, elbowing her.

“Shut up,” Andie giggled as Harry resurfaced.

“Are you still not in the water?” Harry called to the girls, though his eyes were only on Andie.

“We’re working on our tan,” Caitlyn called to him and he let out a laugh.

“ _Ahhhh!”_ They heard as Niall zoomed past them and cannonball into the water near Harry.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Caitlyn snapped, holding her hand over her heart.

“He scared the shit out of me,” Andie chuckled, feeling the rapid beating of her startled heart.

Louis and Liam came onto the deck next, but not in such an obnoxious manner.

“Get in the water,” Louis told Janessa immediately, gesturing his hand out to the lake.

“ _You_ get in the water,” she snapped back, but Andie somehow knew they were being playful with each other.

“I’m gonna push you in,” Louis threatened, pressing his palms to her back, but didn’t actually make a move to do it.

“Louis William Tomlinson!” Janessa warned.

“I love you,” Louis said quickly before he actually pushed her in, causing her to let out a loud screech just before she plummeted in. He jumped in a second later as everyone laughed.

“LOUIS! I’m gonna _kill_ you!” Janessa snapped once she surfaced, searching for him in the water, but he swam a ways away behind Harry and Niall.

“You gotta catch me first,” Louis said with a laugh and she quickly began swimming toward him.

“C’mon, babe,” Niall said, swimming up to the boat by Caitlyn.

“If you tug me into the water, I’m gonna punch you in the dick,” Caitlyn told him immediately, causing Niall to let out a cackle.

“I wasn’t going to, but good to know,” Niall chuckled.

Liam walked up next to Andie where Janessa sat not two minute before and quickly did a front flip off the deck.

“Did you guys take a class on doing flips into water or something?” Andie chuckled, looking down at Harry just as Liam surfaced.

“Get me on a trampoline and I’ll be doing flips all day,” Harry said with a smirk.

“ _Ah_. So an all-around acrobat?” Andie giggled.

“I’m _very_ flexible,” Harry told her, bouncing his eyebrows and she nearly choked at how sexual the statement sounded.

“You’re trying too hard, man,” Liam chuckled, patting Harry’s back before he dipped down into the water and swam toward where Louis, Janessa and some of the other guys now were.

“Are you coming in the water some time today?” Harry asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“ _Mm_. Maybe,” Andie said, smiling at him.

“You’re the last one left,” he said, smirking at her and she turned her head to see that Niall and Caitlyn were nowhere in sight. When did Caitlyn finally get in the water? Had she been so preoccupied with Harry to even notice? _Ugh_. She needed to really dial back her crush on him.

Harry gripped onto the edge of the deck and pulled himself up. She couldn’t help but notice the way his arm muscles rippled as he did it, causing her mind to go on another tangent about him. _God._ She needed help. Harry sat down next to Andie as he ran his hands across his head to get some of the water out of his hair before looking over at her.

“C’mon. I’ll jump in with you,” Harry said as he clambered up to a standing position.

Andie looked up at him, shielding her eyes from the sun, but made no move to get up.

“I have a perfect view of your cleavage from here,” he commented a moment later with a sly smirk and a bounce of his eyebrows.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” she scoffed, backhanding his shin.

“ _Ow_ ,” he chuckled, shaking his leg.

“C’mon, _Andria_ ,” Harry said expectantly, holding his hands out for her.

“Fine,” she grumbled, taking his hands, letting him help hoist her up. When their chests collided, Andie couldn’t help the awkwardness she felt and the burning blush in her cheeks.

“Are you going to jump in with me?” Harry asked lowly, neither one of them moving away from each other.

“Get a room!” One of the guys yelled from the other boat and Harry’s eye-contact broke as he looked around Andie to see who it was.

“Fuck off, Jensen,” Harry snapped at him, but he had a jovial look on his face, nonetheless. Jensen let out a loud cackle as he jumped off Eric’s boat into the water.

Andie took a step back and turned toward the water, noticing Sasha’s eyes on Harry.

“On three,” Harry said, turning toward the water too. She looked over at him and nodded.

“One, two…” Harry counted, grabbing her hand in his, “three.”

Andie gripped onto her nose with her free hand as the two of them leapt off of the boat into the lake together.

Even when they hit the water, Harry didn’t let go of her hand. He just squeezed tighter, which sort of hurt all the bones in her hand, but somehow she didn’t mind. She giggled as the two of them surfaced and Harry finally let go of her hand.

“You almost broke all my fingers, I swear,” Andie chuckled, wiggling her hand in front of her.

“Ha. Sorry,” Harry laughed, gently grabbing her hand and bringing it up to his lips.

Andie’s stomach did somersaults as he left a chaste kiss on her knuckles before smiling over at her.

“Oh my god,” she giggled, taking her hand back and Harry let out a laugh before he began swimming away. Andie looked up to see Sasha sending her a death glare as she stood with Niall, Caitlyn and Jensen on the sandbar.

 _Yikes_. Andie quickly followed Harry through the water before Sasha’s look could actually kill.

...

The group splashed around until the sun began to dip low in the sky. And when Andie finally got back on the boat, Harry and Louis were already on it, smoking cigarettes with their friend Asher, and of course Sasha was up there too, even though she didn’t even smoke.

Andie quickly dried off her body as best she could before she wrapped her towel around herself and sat down on the back couch. As everyone else seemed to be loading onto the boat, Asher stood up and threw his cigarette butt into the water.

“Asher, you fucking dickhead,” Harry snapped at him a moment later.

“What?”

“Don’t throw your fucking cigarette in the lake,” Harry told him and Andie couldn’t help but smile as she watched him nearly bite his friends head off for littering into the water. It was kind of hot.

“Who fucking cares?” Asher chuckled.

“Uh, the fish that chokes on the fucking thing,” Harry snapped and Andie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh my god. You _looooove_ him,” Caitlyn cooed, snapping Andie out of her Harry tunnel-vision.

“What?” Andie asked, looking over at her.

“You’re so totally in love with Harry,” Caitlyn said lowly.

“What? Why would you say that?” Andie said, furrowing her brow in question.

“Because you literally can’t stop _starin_ g at him,” she chuckled, sitting down next to her.

“I mean, he’s _yelling_...” Andie countered, just as there was a loud splash in the water. Andie’s head snapped in that direction and realized Harry was no longer on the boat. _What the hell?_ Did Asher push him in?

“It’s not that serious, Styles,” Asher chuckled as Harry surfaced with the cigarette butt in his hand, throwing it back at Asher, who let it drop onto the couch.

“It kind of is,” Harry told him before he swam to the back of the boat.

“Pick it up,” Louis scowled at Asher.

“Fine. _Jesus_ ,” Asher said, bending down to grab it, making a show that he was shoving it into the empty soda can that Louis and Harry were using as an ashtray.

“He’s fucking crazy,” Asher chuckled, talking about Harry.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t litter,” Louis countered as he sat down in the driver chair, drying off his hair with his towel before he slung it around his neck.

“Here he comes,” Caitlyn whispered to Andie as she stood up and walked to the front of the boat where Niall was.

Andie felt stunned that Caitlyn would just leave her there alone. She wondered if Janessa was going to sit up by Louis during the ride back, making her the only loser in the back of the boat. That was until Harry plopped down next to her.

“Hey,” he said, smiling over at her.

“Hey,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat up. _God_ , he was so beautiful.

Louis started the boat and pushed a button to retract the anchors. And once everything was in order, Louis gunned the boat out of there and they took off toward the open water. The sky was filled with oranges and pinks as the sun sank down in the sky. It was amazing and certainly rivaled the beauty of the boy sitting next to her.

“The sky looks cool,” Harry said, looking over at her and she couldn’t help but smile as her hair whipped back in the wind.

When they got back to the beach, Louis slowly parked the boat by the dock and started talking to Asher about him going back to the marina with Eric to bring their boats to dock. Harry and Andie were the last ones off the boat, besides Asher who was ready to take off.

Instead of walking down to the beach like all his friends, Harry sat down on the end of the dock and sent her a smile before patting the dock to tell her to sit down with him. She couldn’t help but smile before she nodded and sat down with him, her towel draped over her shoulders like a cape. The two of them watched Asher take off with the boat and when he was gone, they were left in silence.

“I can’t believe how fast the sun set,” Harry said, looking up at the darkened sky.

“Yeah,” Andie agreed, looking up at the stars.

She couldn’t believe how many of them were out already and how clear and bright the sky was. Where she lived in Nevada, the night sky was usually drowned out by the lights of Vegas and it was hard to get a good view of the stars. But here, in New Jersey, even with Manhattan less than an hour away, she could see so many.

When she looked back over at Harry, he was already looking at her and she couldn’t help but smile.

“What?” She asked.

“What?” He asked, smirking back at her and she couldn’t help but breath out a laugh and roll her eyes.

She bit her lip as the two of them looked out across the water.

“You know, that was pretty cool earlier,” Andie started to say.

“What was?”

“Calling out your friend for littering in the lake. Most people wouldn’t,” she said, smiling over at him.

“Well, then most people are idiots,” he chuckled.

“Seriously though. That was cool,” she said, knocking her shoulder against his.

“Uh. Thanks, I guess,” he chuckled and she couldn’t help but chuckle too.

There was literally a split second of silence between the two of them before Harry started talking again, almost like getting complimented made him uncomfortable.

“Did you know there’s a song called _‘Andria’_... like, it’s literally even spelt the same way as your name,” Harry told her, breaking her out of her gushing thoughts about him.

“What? Is there really?” She asked, a surprised smile making its way onto her face.

“Yeah. It’s by this post-hardcore band called La Dispute,” he told her, nodding his head.

“Wow. That’s cool,” Andie said with a laugh.

How did he find that out? She knew he listened to classic rock music like David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Queen, and 70’s and 80’s new-wave bands like Joy Division, Talking Heads and The Smith’s. Since when did he listen to post-hardcore? Did he google her name or something? She would probably do some shady shit, like sell her soul, just to find out.

“You’ll have to look it up,” he told her.

“I think I might,” she said, unable to keep the smile off her face.

“Where did your parents come up with your name? Like how it’s spelled?” Harry asked a moment later.

“Um, my father’s ancestors are from a city in Italy called Andria. And that’s how it’s spelled. A-N-D-R-I-A,” she told him with a smile.

“As simple as that,” he said, smiling back.

“As simple as that,” she said with a nod.

The two of them went silent again as both of their necks craned up to the sky once again.

“Did you know the nearest star is over four light-years away?” Andie asked, looking over at Harry, throwing out a little space knowledge.

“Really?”

“Yeah. So, like, if you wish on a star, you know ‘ _when you wish upon a star_ …’” Andie continued, singing the last part to the melody of the _Disney_ song of the same title. Harry chuckled, smiling over at her.

“You know. _Ha_. So when someone wishes on that particular star, it will actually take over eight light-years before it will come true. Because like, it has to travel there and back, you know,” she stammered. Her cheeks heated up immediately as the nerd side of her personality suddenly revealed itself.

“ _Hmm_ ,” Harry hummed, looking as though he was really thinking about it.

“I mean, if you believe in that sort of thing,” Andie said with a laugh.

“Do you believe in that sort of thing?” Harry asked, smiling at her.

“Um. I don’t know. Maybe,” she said, smiling bashfully back at him. She never really thought about it. _Disney_ sure wanted her to believe in wishing upon stars though.

“ _Hmm_ ,” he hummed again, nodding his head as he looked up at the sky again.

She felt a bit awkward, so she continued talking, hoping Harry liked hearing worthless space facts.

“Do you see those three really bright stars over there? They look like they’re in a triangle,” Andie tried to explain, pointing up at the sky. Harry immediately looked up into the sky to see where she was pointing.

“Uh… yeah. Yeah. I see them. There, there, and there?” He questioned, pointing in their general direction.

“Yeah. That’s called the Summer Triangle,” she told him and he looked over at her with a questioning expression.

“Sounds made up,” he told her, hiking one of his eyebrows skeptically.

“It’s not, I swear,” she laughed, shoving lightly at his shoulder.

“What is the ‘Summer Triangle’?” He asked sarcastically, using air quotes with the last two words.

“Shut up,” she said, narrowing her eyes playfully at him.

“I’m just messing with you,” he laughed, knocking his shoulder into hers.

“Um, it’s the marking of the changing of seasons - from spring to summer. The stars - uh, one’s name is Vega and there’s uh, Alistair or Altair or something. And the last one is… uh… I can’t remember the last one’s name. I think it starts with a ‘D’. But yeah, they can be seen pretty much year round in the northern hemisphere, but they’re so much brighter in June and July, hence the name the _Summer_ Triangle,” she explained, looking over at him.

“ _Hmm_. Interesting,” he said, looking up at them.

She couldn’t actually tell if he was appreciating what she was saying or if he thought it was boring. She thought pretty much everything about space was fascinating, so she kept talking.

“It’s not actually considered a constellation though,” she told him.

“What is it then?” He asked, looking at her oddly.

“Uh, I think it’s called an asterism or something,” she told him.

“It sounds like a health condition or a sexual… uh, _something_ ,” Harry said, laughing out loud at his own joke and she couldn’t help but laugh too.

“You must be thinking of like, an aneurysm and an orgasm, which it is neither,” she chuckled, shaking her head. He laughed out loud and shrugged his shoulders.

“So what is an asterism?” Harry asked curiously. He was asking questions, so he must have thought it was a little interesting.

“Um. Just like, a group of stars with a popular name,” she told him with a shrug.

“So what is a constellation then?” He asked, looking confused.

“A group of stars that make a recognizable pattern,” she explained, making him look even more confused.

“Like Orion. Orion is a constellation. It’s shaped like a hunter with a bow,” she explained and he nodded his head.

“But like, Orion’s belt is an asterism, because it’s just a part of the constellation. Just a grouping of stars that don’t make a full constellation or whatever,” Andie explained.

“ _Hmm_ ,” Harry hummed, looking up at the sky again.

“The big dipper is considered an asterism too,” she informed him.

“What? I thought it was a constellation,” he said, his expression confused again as he looked at her.

“It’s also just _part_ of a constellation. Ursa Major. It’s not technically it’s own constellation. Same with the little dipper, which is a part of Ursa Minor,” she told him.

“Wow,” he breathed, his neck craning up to the stars again.

“So, yeah. That’s the Summer Triangle,” she said, feeling awkward.

“And how many light-years away is the Summer Triangle?” Harry asked with a sideways smirk.

“Uh. Good question. Um, I think the three stars are all different distances. I think there’s two of them that are only like 15 to 20 light-years away, whereas the third one is like thousands of light-years away,” she said, smiling at him, appreciating that he was asking questions, cause it made her feel less awkward for spewing her nerdy wisdom on him.

“Wow. That’s a big difference,” Harry said with a laugh.

“A lot of stars are actually thousands of light-years away. The farthest one that we can see with the naked-eye is four-thousand light-years away,” Andie explained.

“How do you know so much about the stars?” He asked, watching her, looking almost amazed.

“I dunno. It’s fascinating,” she said, looking up again, immediately finding the Big Dipper and tracing it across the sky to the Little Dipper.

“Well, do you see that star over there? That’s the ‘Harry Styles’ star,” he said, pointing at the North Star, making Andie laugh.

“The ‘Harry Styles’ star?” She chuckled.

“Yeah. It’s named that because it’s the brightest and best looking star in the sky,” Harry replied, smiling over at her.

“Oh my god,” she laughed, shaking her head. He was something else.

“So, the _‘Harry Styles’_ star, AKA the North Star, AKA Polaris, is over three hundred light-years away. So like, don’t be wishing on that star because it will never come true in your lifetime,” Andie chuckled.

“Oh, shit. Is that my problem then? No wonder none of my wishes come true. I really thought a guy could rely on wishing on his own star,” Harry joked, his smile jovial and Andie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Also, don’t wish on a shooting star,” she said with a smirk.

“Why? Are they like a million miles away?” He asked, looking intrigued.

“No. It’s just that they literally aren’t even stars,” Andie told him with a laugh.

“ _What?”_ He asked incredulously, his mouth hanging open in confusion.

“They aren’t,” she laughed.

“My whole life is a lie. What are they if they’re not shooting ‘stars’?” Harry asked, using air quotes again.

“They’re meteoroids. They look like they’re ‘shooting’ because it’s just bits of rock and dust falling into earth’s atmosphere, burning up on contact,” Andie explained.

“Wow,” Harry breathed, looking at her like he was in complete awe. She liked the look he was giving her. Like she was the only person in the world with him in that moment, like he admired her just a little bit, maybe.

“Okay, _Galileo_ , how many light-years away is the farthest thing we can see in the sky? Like anything… stars, planets, black holes… whatever,” Harry asked and Andie let out a breath of a laugh before shaking her head. Black holes were definitely not visible to the naked-eye.

“What? Do you know it?” He asked, smiling widely at her.

“Uh, yeah. _God_. You probably think I’m the biggest dork,” she said with a laugh.

“Why? Cause you’re smart?” He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

“Yeah,” she laughed.

“Last time I checked, being smart was a good thing,” Harry said with a laugh.

“Yeah,” she said quietly with a nod.

“Well, what is it?” He asked impatiently.

“Um, the farthest thing we can see in the sky with the naked-eye is the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s about 2.5 million light-years away,” she explained, and she _knew_ she sounded like the biggest nerd on earth - or in the _universe_.

“But like, I honestly couldn’t tell you where it is in the sky. I’d have to look it up,” she said with a giggle and Harry chuckled next to her.

“Honestly, I’m jealous that you know so much about the universe,” Harry said, smiling sweetly at her.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, nodding his head.

The way he was looking at her made her entire body blush. She wanted to lean over and kiss him so bad. But she honestly didn’t really know where they stood with each other, so she stopped herself, looking up at the sky again. She could still feel his eyes on her even then and she couldn’t help but hold her breath. When she finally noticed him look away, she let out a silent breath before she stole a glance at him from the corner of her eye.

“Have you ever been stung by a jelly-fish?” Harry asked out of nowhere, breaking the silence. Andie let out a laugh.

“Um. No. I live in a landlocked state,” she snickered.

“Oh. Oh yeah,” he said, letting out a laugh.

“Have _you_ ever been stung by a jelly-fish?” Andie asked a moment later.

“No. I was just thinking about how much it would suck. Like, I wanted to put my feet in the water and then thought ‘what if a jelly-fish were to sting me?’ Then I remembered we’re not at the ocean right now,” he chuckled, explaining his manic thoughts. Andie could only laugh with him.

“Put your feet in if you want,” she suggested.

“So a fish can bite off my toe?” Harry asked incredulously.

“You sure think a lot of sea creatures are out to get you,” Andie laughed.

“I mean, it’s plausible,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders and she let out a breath of a laugh.

“Have you heard about all the scary shit in the ocean?”

“We’re not at the ocean, remember?” She reminded him.

“Still. It’s stuff of nightmares, I swear. Like, down so far where the sunlight doesn’t even reach, there’s this fish called the Black Seadevil and it’s like… it’s fucking _terrifying_. It has this like, massive mouth with these gnarly-ass razor-sharp teeth sticking out,” he began to explain, sticking the back of his hand against his lips before wiggling his fingers in front of him like they were teeth.

“Gross,” she groaned, making a face at him.

“Yeah. And like, it doesn’t have scales. It’s pretty much just this round, blob of a fish. It’s _disgusting_. Oh, and it’s got this like, antenna that sticks out of its head and there’s like, this glowing bacteria that lives on the tip of it, so it looks like a flashlight hanging off it’s forehead,” Harry began to explain.

“Oh my god! Is that the scary fish from _Finding Nemo?”_ Andie asked excitedly.

“Yes!”

“Oh my god, the animation of it was disgusting. I can’t even imagine how disgusting it is in real life,” Andie told him.

“Wait, wait. It gets worse,” Harry said, holding out his hand to stop her.

“Oh, no,” Andie said, waiting on bated breath to hear the rest.

“So, that’s _just_ the female…” Harry continued.

“Oh, man,” Andie groaned, unable to imagine how disgusting the male had to be to top the female.

“So the male Black Seadevil is way smaller and isn’t able to eat on it’s own, so it lives as a parasite _on_ the female’s body,” Harry explained.

“ _Oh. My. God_ ,” Andie breathed out each word slowly, her mouth hung open in disgust.

“Like, it’s _fused_ to her freakin’ body,” Harry elaborated.

“Oh my god, stop. I don’t want to hear any more,” she whined, closing her eyes.

“Can you imagine?” Harry asked her with a laugh.

“No! I’m trying not to,” she laughed, shaking her head.

“It would be like—” Harry said, scooting right up to her and pressing his body against hers.

“It would be like this. Like, me, fused to your body,” Harry told her, his warm breath whirring past her ear, causing goosebumps to raise on her skin. Now, that didn’t sound so bad to her… being that close to Harry.

“It’s crazy, right?” Harry laughed, wrapping his arm around her and squeezing her tightly, still pretending to be the fused male fish, causing her to giggle.

“Am I annoying you yet?” He asked, looking at her, their faces so close together. Her laughter died off as she looked at him. She wasn’t even breathing. She was just staring back into his eyes.

His smile slowly faded off his face as he looked at her and everything got serious. She watched as his eyes darted down to her lips and she knew he was about to kiss her. She wanted him to. She’d been waiting for this to happen again ever since the last time he kissed her.

“Yo!” They heard Louis yell before he started walking down the dock toward them.

Harry took his arms back immediately and turned to look at his best friend. _Fucking Louis_.

“Sorry to interrupt… uh, whatever this is, but uh… we’re ready to go,” Louis told them.

They both watched as Louis smirked knowingly at them before he nodded at Harry, giving him some sort of approval, causing Harry to shake his head with an involuntary smirk on his face.

“Uh, so I’m just gonna tell Janessa it’ll be a few minutes,” Louis said with a little laugh before he spun on his heels and walked back toward the shore.

 _Oh, Jesus_. Andie’s entire body heated up in an instant. _Fucking Louis_.

“Uh, we better go,” Harry said, quickly standing up.

“Uh, yeah,” she said, doing the same as she wrapped her towel around her waist.

The two of them walked back to the shore and out to the parking lot in total silence. Andie felt awkward and she hated it. She was certain she could sense the exact same from Harry.

“Janessa had to go. She has to get up early in the morning,” Louis told them, hanging his head out his truck window.

“Okay,” Harry told him.

“My cars full, so uh, you can get Andie back home, right?” Louis asked Harry, quirking a suggestive eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Harry said, rolling his eyes at his best friend’s obvious plan to throw the two of them together.

“Alright. I’ll see you guys later,” Louis said and without another word, he drove away from them.

“Well, that was awkward,” Harry said as the two of them walked toward his Jeep. Andie snickered under her breath, because that was all she could do. Louis was _so_ obvious. He and Janessa seemed to both be trying to get the two of them together.

She slipped into the passenger seat as Harry got into the driver seat.

“My bag is in Janessa’s car,” she said when she realized she didn’t have it.

“Well, shit,” Harry said, looking over at her.

“Can you… uh, can you call her quick? Like, she has my phone and keys,” Andie told him.

“Yeah. Okay,” he said, digging in the front pocket of his shorts for his phone.

Once he got her on the phone, Janessa told him that Louis put her bag in Harry’s backseat because he told her Harry would give Andie a ride home.

“Oh my god,” Andie said, pulling her bag up to the front with her, realizing it was _solely_ Louis’ plan to get them together.

“Wow,” Harry said as he ended the phone call and started up the Jeep.

“Well, at least I have my stuff,” she said awkwardly.

“Yep,” he said as he backed out of the parking spot and drove toward her neighborhood.

The car ride was mostly silent, except for the low sound of David Bowie’s _Space Oddity_ playing through the car. It seemed fitting somehow after their talk about the stars.

Andie was in complete awe when Harry began to sing softly.

“‘ _This is Ground Control to Major Tom. You’ve really made the grade. And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear. Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare’_ ,” he sang.

Andie stayed completely silent, hoping he would continue. His voice was good. Really, _really_ good.

“‘ _This is Major Tom to Ground Control. I’m stepping through the door. And I’m floating in a most peculiar way. And the stars look very different today’_ ,” Harry continued singing along with Bowie.

“Ha. We were just talking about the stars,” Harry acknowledged, looking over at her with a smile on his face.

“We were,” she said, smiling back at him.

“This song fits with it,” he told her.

“That’s what I was thinking,” she snickered to herself, hoping he’d sing more, but he didn’t have a chance to because a few moments later, he was pulling up to the gate at her dad’s house.

“Uh, the code is uh… 2-8-0-9,” Andie told him and he put it in so the gate opened for them.

When Harry parked the vehicle at the top of the driveway, Andie bit at her lip, feeling uneasy. She longed for how comfortable she felt with him sitting on the dock. Why did everything become awkward when they were interrupted by another person? It was like they were in their own little bubble before it was burst by Louis.

“Um, thanks for the ride,” she told him as she gripped onto her bag in one hand and the door handle in the other.

“Uh, yeah. No problem,” he said, watching her.

“So uh, I’ll see you, you know, at work or something,” she told him, still feeling incredibly awkward. She hated it.

“Yeah, for sure,” he told her.

“Alright. Bye, Harry,” she said, pushing open the door.

“Bye, Andie,” he said as she got out.

When she walked in front of the Jeep to go toward the house, Harry waved, sending her a big smile and she was unable to keep her own massive smile off her face as she waved back.

When she finally got into the house and trudged up the stairs to her room, she threw herself onto her bed with a groan.

 _Ugh_. Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?


	7. Six

**June 2011**

“Hi, honey. How is everything on the east coast?” Her mother asked her as they stared at each other through phone screens on _FaceTime_.

“It’s okay,” Andie told her, biting at her lip.

“Just okay?” Her mom asked.

“I just… I miss you,” Andie said quietly, looking down at her hands.

She felt like a baby, but it was true – she missed her mom. Her mom was her best friend in the entire world. Growing up it was just the two of them, and Andie liked it that way.

“Oh, baby. I miss you too,” her mom cooed.

“How’s Ross?” Andie asked about her new step-dad, trying to change the subject. She didn’t want to get all emotional.

“He’s good. Right now he’s trying to fix that damn alternator in my car,” she told her.

“Some honeymoon,” Andie quipped, smirking at her mother.

“We’re having fun too. _Believe me_ ,” her mom said, quirking an eyebrow at her.

“ _Ugh_. Was that just a suggestive eyebrow twitch? _Mom_ ,” Andie groaned, not wanting to hear anything about her mother’s sex life.

“Well, we _are_ newlyweds,” she laughed.

“God, Mom. Please stop,” Andie laughed.

“Okay, okay. I didn’t actually mean it to sound sexual. How’s your new job going? I’m surprised you got a job. Your father is literally swimming in money, you know,” her mom said, rolling her eyes.

“I got a job so I don’t lose my mind from boredom this summer,” Andie laughed.

“I think you only got a job so your father couldn’t send you off to camp again,” she joked.

“That did cross my mind,” Andie laughed.

“Any boys out there?” She asked, quirking a suggestive eyebrow.

“Of course there are boys out here. There are girls too,” Andie laughed, knowing what her mother was trying to get at.

“Any _cute_ boys? Are you making friends?”

“I _have_ made friends,” Andie said, ignoring the first question on purpose. She knew her mom was fishing for information.

“What’s his name?” Her mom asked knowingly.

“Jeez, Mom,” Andie grumbled.

“Your father might have mentioned a boy. A boy who was in your bedroom,” her mom told her, sending her a stern but playful look.

“ _Ugh_. When did you two talk?” Andie grumbled.

“I like to know what’s going on with my daughter,” she told her.

“He’s just a boy,” Andie told her vaguely.

“Just a boy?”

“Yeah. I work with him at the grocery store,” she told her.

“And his name is…?”

“Harry,” Andie said flatly.

“Harry, huh? Is he cute? I can see you blushing all the way from here,” her mom pointed out.

“ _Shut up_ ,” Andie scoffed, smiling wildly.

“So, he’s cute,” her mom said matter-of-factly.

“He is,” Andie admitted finally.

“Is there potential?” Her mom asked.

“What’s the point? I’m leaving at the end of the summer,” she told her.

“Oh, honey. Summer romances are the best kind,” her mom laughed.

“Summer romances? You do realize what you’re telling your seventeen-year-old daughter, right?”

“You’re smart. I know you’ll have a level head and make the right choices. You are _my_ daughter after all,” she laughed.

“Oh, that doesn’t give me much confidence in myself,” Andie quipped.

“Andria! You take that back!” Her mom laughed out loud.

“I’m kidding, Mom,” Andie said, smirking widely at her.

“Make better choices than you did at camp though,” her mom threw in.

“Oh my god. I wish I would have never told you that! Stop using it against me,” Andie laughed.

“I’m not using it against you. I’m just saying…” She laughed blithely.

“You’re just saying not to have sex with anybody?” Andie laughed.

“Well, I’m not going to tell you _to_ have sex with anybody. I just know that if you do, you will do it responsibly, right?” Her mom asked.

“Yes, Mother,” Andie said dryly, rolling her eyes, her mind now thinking only of Harry.

A moment later, they both heard Ross calling for her mom to help him in the garage.

“Oh. I better get going,” her mom chuckled, heightening her eyebrows amusingly.

“Alight,” Andie chuckled.

“It was so good to talk to you, even if it wasn’t very long,” her mom told her with a smile.

“It was,” Andie agreed.

“Well, sweetie. We’ll talk again soon, yeah?”

“Of course,” Andie said, looking at her mother through the screen, missing her so much.

“I love you, honey. Be good,” she said, smiling fondly at her daughter.

“I love you too, Mom,” Andie told her.

…

“ _Psst,_ Andie,” she heard as she passed by the double doors at the back of the store leading to the loading dock and stock rooms in the tiny grocery store. She did a double take, noticing Harry’s head sticking through the small opening.

“What’s up?” She asked, quirking her eyebrow at him.

“Come here,” he said, waving his hand through the door opening.

“What?” She asked, walking toward him.

“Come hang out with me,” he told her.

“I’m supposed to be zoning,” she told him as he held open the backroom door for her.

“So,” he said evenly.

“So? Um, it’s my job,” she said, raising her eyebrow at him.

“So, come help me with mine,” he told her.

“But…” Andie protested, pointing back behind her toward the store where she was supposed to be.

“But nothing. Kathy’s out there zoning too,” Harry said as they walked further into the backroom.

“What are you doing anyway?” Andie asked as they walked into the stock room.

“I’m counting inventory,” Harry said as he turned down the radio that was perched on a shelf.

“So you just get to hang out back here listening to music and counting merchandise?” Andie asked, looking at him skeptically.

“Sure do. That’s what seniority gets me. I’m on the fast track for management, you know,” he said sarcastically.

“Your future’s so bright,” she laughed, rolling her eyes.

“I bet that makes you want me, doesn’t it?” He joked.

“You got me,” she said dryly, looking around at the floor to ceiling shelves stocked with boxes full of food.

“I’m just glad I’m not stuck in the dairy cooler. It smells like curdled milk in there,” Harry told her.

“Gross,” Andie said, turning up her nose.

“You’re telling me,” Harry said as he picked up a clipboard and started to count some of the boxes of cereal.

He looked so official doing his job and Andie couldn’t help but stare at him. He was right, it _did_ make her want him. But seriously, he could sneeze and that would make her want him too. So really, it was a losing battle.

“This room is pretty secluded,” Andie pointed out.

“Yeah. The only time anyone comes in here is in the morning when they’re restocking the shelves. Otherwise, it’s only when inventory gets counted once every two weeks,” Harry told her.

“ _Hmm_ ,” Andie hummed, quirking an eyebrow.

“What?” He asked, looking back at her.

“Imagine how many people over the years have used this room for dirty deeds,” she said, smirking wildly at him.

“Oh, God. I’ve never thought of that,” Harry said, making a disgusted face.

“Right on this pile of dog food,” Andie suggested as she sat down on a pallet of _Iams_ dog chow.

“Ugh. Imagine Randy bringing a chick in here,” Harry laughed with a disgusted look on his face, thinking of their tool of a manager.

“No, gross. Why did you have to bring him up?” Andie whined.

“Have you seen his girlfriend? _Woof_ ,” Harry said, turning to count another bit from his list.

“I have not had the pleasure,” Andie laughed from her spot on the dog food.

“They were made for each other,” Harry laughed.

“What time do you get off tonight?” Andie asked, changing the subject.

“Why? Do you wanna help?” Harry asked, turning to give her a suggestive look. It took Andie a few seconds to understand his joke but when she did she groaned playful.

“ _Really_ , Styles?” She chuckled, shaking her head at him. Harry laughed out loud, thinking his dirty joke was pretty funny.

“Should I have said ‘that’s what she said’? Would it have been funnier?” He chuckled.

“Can’t go wrong with a ‘that’s what she said’ joke,” Andie said, smiling approvingly at him.

“I get off at six. You?” He asked a moment later as he counted another section on his list.

“6:30,” she told him.

“Really? Do you think you could give me a ride to Louis’ when you get off?” He asked, perking up slightly.

“Uh, sure. You don’t have your car?” She asked curiously.

“Nah. It’s my sister’s turn with it,” he said, his expression turning into a frown.

“Yeah, I can give you a ride,” she told him.

“You can come too, you know,” Harry offered.

“To hang out with you and Louis?” She asked. It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. She’d rather hang out with Harry alone, but whatever.

“Yeah. And there will be other people there too, I’m sure. We’re just getting together. Drinking some beer, you know. The usual,” Harry told her.

“Drinking beer and hanging out with your buddies? How cliché,” Andie joked, sending him a snarky smirk.

“Ha-ha. Janessa should be there too,” Harry offered.

“Alright,” Andie said, agreeing to another night of drinking with the group.

The last time she drank with them, she and Harry made out against a wall, which she’d been imagining since she first laid eyes on him and hadn’t stopped thinking about since it happened. Maybe there was hope for reprise.

…

Six-thirty couldn’t come fast enough. Harry was waiting for her outside of the store by the picnic table, smoking as per usual. He squashed out his cigarette when he saw her and walked toward her.

“Hey,” he said, his _Midland Park Foods_ smock bunched up in his hand.

“Hi,” she said bashfully as they fell into step with each other, walking to her father’s car.

“So, your dad just lets you drive around in his _Mercedes-Benz?”_ Harry asked, getting in the passenger seat of the immaculate vehicle.

“Yeah. I think it was his previous ex-wife’s car,” Andie told him.

“It’s a beauty,” Harry said, running his hand across the leather interior.

“It’s okay,” Andie said, shrugging her shoulders. She wasn’t much of a car person.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re a rich snob too? Someone who doesn’t appreciate nice things because they grew up with money and think nothing of dropping 100 G’s on a car,” Harry said, looking at her through judgmental eyes.

“What? No,” Andie scoffed, looking at him incredulously.

“Look at your dad’s house. Look at this car,” Harry said in an accusatory voice.

“I was not raised with money, Harry. I grew up in a three bedroom house in Henderson, Nevada. My mom drove a _Chevy Malibu_ during my childhood. I don’t even _have_ a car. I literally ride the bus to school,” Andie scoffed, setting him straight. Harry eyed her suspiciously for a moment.

“Sorry. I’m just used to hanging around people who wipe their asses with hundred dollar bills,” he said quietly.

“Well, I’m not one of those people. Whatever money my mom got from my dad for child support, she used to pay bills. And whatever was left over would go into a trust for me that I can’t touch until I’m twenty-five, unless I use it for college. That’s the only stipulation. I can’t just, like, go to the bank and withdraw the money,” Andie explained.

She didn’t know _why_ she felt the need to explain though. Maybe because she cared what he thought of her. Maybe a little too much.

He nodded his head before looking out the windshield.

“Now if you’re done snapping at me, can we go?” Andie asked, finally starting up the car.

“I wasn’t snapping,” Harry countered.

“Sure felt like it,” Andie argued.

“Sorry,” Harry said finally.

Andie pulled out of the parking space and made her way out of the parking lot. She felt awkward as they drove through the streets back to her temporary neighborhood.

“Do you mind if we stop at my father’s house so I can change? Or does it make you uncomfortable being in a house that large?” Andie chided.

“I’m fine,” he scoffed out a laugh, rolling his eyes at her.

“I thought so. You sure don’t seem to have a problem hanging out with the fortunate ones,” Andie kept on as she pulled up to the gate outside the house, hoping he knew she was joking.

“Can we drop it?” Harry asked, laughing lightly.

“Sure. I just want to make sure that my father’s money doesn’t offend you,” she continued on.

“Okay, _shut up_ ,” he laughed. Andie laughed out loud as she put in the code for the gate to open.

When the two of them got into the house, they noticed the dining room light was on and Andie quickly peeked her head around the corner, finding her father eating dinner all by himself. It was probably one of the saddest things she’d seen in a long time.

“Um, hi,” she said quietly, coming into view.

“Oh. Hi, darling,” he said, perking up a bit at the sight of her.

“Um, I’m going to go over to the neighbor’s house to hang out with some friends, alright?” She asked as she felt Harry’s presence next to her. She noticed her father’s eyes fall to the boy at her side.

“Harry, right?” Her dad asked, eyeing him.

“Right. Hi. It’s nice to see you again, sir,” Harry told her father.

“Um, I’m just going to change and we’re going to go,” she told her father without getting an answer back from him.

“Harry can stay down here with me then. Harry, have a seat,” her father said, pointing to the seat next to him at the table.

“Um, alright,” Harry said hesitantly and walked toward her father.

“I’ll just be a few minutes,” Andie said to Harry quietly.

She took the stairs two-by-two in a rush to get ready. She didn’t want to put Harry through the torture of trying to carry on a conversation with her father who knew even less about her than Harry did. Besides, who knows what kind of embarrassing stuff her father would say to him.

She quickly undressed and re-dressed into a pair of jean shorts and a navy blue floral patterned tank top. She reapplied deodorant and makeup before re-brushing her teeth and spritzing herself with perfume. She grabbed her cell phone and shoved it in her back pocket and pulled her long wavy blonde hair from its ponytail, running her fingers through it quickly before she decided it looked fine. A few seconds later she was racing back down the stairs to save Harry from her father.

“Hi, uh, I’m ready,” she said quickly, stopping in the doorway of the dining room. Both of them looked up at her. Harry’s wide green eyes looked relieved to see her.

“C’mon, Harry. Bye, Dad,” Andie said as Harry got up and moved toward her.

“Nice, seeing you again, Mr. Ellis,” Harry told him.

“Likewise,” he countered.

“C’mon,” Andie said, grabbing Harry’s arm.

“Andria,” her dad said just before they turned the corner.

“Yeah?” She asked, stopping in her tracks.

“Be home at a reasonable hour,” her father told her.

“O-okay,” she said and kept walking before he decided to tell her what ‘a reasonable hour’ meant.

She and Harry walked out of the house and she let out a large breath.

“At least he didn’t tell me to be home at eleven again,” Andie quipped as they took off down the driveway, walking toward Louis’ house.

“Uh, at least he didn’t have a _talk_ with you,” Harry said, looking at her wide-eyed.

“Oh, god. What did he say to you?” Andie asked, cringing at the thought.

“Um, well. He told me he had a lot of connections and he wouldn’t hesitate using them if I did anything to hurt you,” Harry told her.

“Oh my god!” Andie yelped.

“He pretty much told me he’d murder me and make it look like an accident,” Harry continued.

“Oh my god. I’m sorry,” Andie whined.

“I told him we were friends and he told me he knew how hormonal teenage boys’ minds work and that if I laid a hand on you, I’d be sorry,” Harry told her.

“Are you joking?” Andie asked, her blood starting to boil with fury. Her father really had some nerve.

“It’s alright,” Harry laughed.

“He’s been a god damn absentee parent my whole life and then says stuff like that to my friends? _Jesus Christ_ ,” Andie growled.

“It’s okay. My rebellious nature makes me want to break the rules anyway,” Harry said, throwing his arm around her shoulder, pulling her toward his body and Andie let out a laugh.

“Oh, yeah?” She asked, her arm automatically coming up to grip him around his waist.

“Yeah. Does that make me a bad person?” He asked, smiling over at her.

“No. But it does make you an idiot,” she answered and Harry let out a loud laugh as they crossed the street arm-in-arm.

“Well, would you look at the two of you,” they heard Louis say as they walked up his driveway toward him and their friends Asher and Eric. Harry and Andie instinctively dropped their arms away from each other at the sight of them.

“You’re looking _cozy_ ,” Louis said, taking a drag of his cigarette.

“Gimme some,” Harry said, holding his hand out for the little cancer stick, ignoring his comment. Louis obliged and handed it to his best friend. Harry took a couple of drags and handed it back.

Andie felt awkward standing there with the four of them as they started to talk about how Louis’ step-dad got him an early release copy of _FIFA 12_ and they _needed_ to play it. She bit her lip and watched them, hoping the night would be a little bit more eventful. She really didn’t want to sit around watching them play a stupid soccer video game.

“Hey, yo, Andie. Janessa and some other girls are inside if you wanna go in,” Louis told her when he noticed her standing there looking pretty bored while they smoked.

“Alright,” Andie said, eyeing them for another short moment before walking into the large foyer of the house. She could hear voices and music coming from the basement and wondered just how many people were actually over.

She made her way down the stairs and found at least 20 people congregating in the large open rec room. She was starting to learn that Louis didn’t do anything in moderation. Or maybe this was considered moderate to him.

“Andie!” Janessa shouted as soon as she saw her.

“Hi,” she said, looking around at some of the girls Janessa was hanging out with.

She’d only met a few of them before. She smiled and waved at them as she walked up, trying to be as friendly as possible. She could use a few more allies in New Jersey. She never got the whole socializing thing perfected. She always felt way too anxious. She sort of wished Harry was around to lighten the mood.

“Hey, Andie. How’s it going?” Caitlyn said, greeting her with a smile.

“I’m great. How are you?”

“You know, living the dream. Niall hasn’t left that damn TV since we got here,” she replied sarcastically. Andie looked over to see that Niall was playing the infamous _FIFA 12_.

“Yeah. I just heard Harry and Louis talking about that game,” Andie said with a laugh.

“It’s all I’ve been hearing about all day. I’m over it,” Janessa growled under her breath and Andie couldn’t help but laugh.

“So, Andie. Did Harry invite you over?” Janessa asked, sending her a suggestive smile.

“Uh, yeah. Is that okay?” Andie asked apprehensively.

“Of course! I told him to invite you. Here,” she said, handing Andie a cold can of _Coors Light_ beer from the mini fridge under the bar.

“Oh, uh. He just asked me at work today,” Andie told her.

“Oh, you know Harry?” A girl with long wavy brown hair asked. Andie was sure she met the girl before, she just couldn’t remember her name.

“Uh, yeah. We work together,” Andie told her, feeling awkward.

“I’m trying to set them up,” Janessa told the brunette.

“You and Louis need to stop, by the way,” Andie said, pointing at Janessa.

“Why would we stop? You two would be _gorgeous_ together,” Janessa cooed, gripping Andie’s hand in hers.

“I’m honestly not looking for anything. I’m just here for the summer,” Andie told her once again.

“A lot can happen in a summer, Andie,” Janessa said, looking at her knowingly.

“She said she’s not looking for anything,” Sasha snapped at Janessa with a bit of animosity in her tone and their attention shot in her direction. _Ugh_. Why was anyone friends with her? She was so awful.

“Oh, stop being _jealous_ , Sasha,” Janessa said, narrowing her eyes at her friend. Sasha scoffed and grabbed her beer before she walked away from them altogether.

“She thinks because she made out with Harry for like two seconds that she has dibs on him. He was like, completely drunk when he kissed her. And it was like, right after Theresa broke up with him, so it was a rebound anyway,” the brunette said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh,” Andie said quietly, thinking about how Harry made out with _her_ when he was drunk too.

Harry made out with Sasha? When? Before or after Andie was in the picture? If it was after, Harry was a complete liar, since he told her he didn’t want to make-out with _anybody_. With Sasha that would be at least three people he made out with after saying those words.

“She’s just bitter,” Janessa added in, rolling her eyes.

“Does he do that a lot?” Andie asked curiously.

“What?” Janessa asked, giving her a questioning look.

“Make out with girls when he’s drunk,” Andie asked carefully.

“Um, I don’t know. This is like a whole new Harry. He was with Theresa for a long time. He was always a good little boy when she was around,” Janessa explained.

“He was whipped,” Caitlyn chimed in.

“Oh,” Andie said again just as Louis and Harry made their way down stairs.

Andie’s attention was immediately on Harry. When his eyes found hers he smiled widely. She smiled back at him, but hers didn’t nearly match his enthusiasm. They were literally just talking about him and it made her feel super awkward. Not to mention the fact that Janessa and Louis were completely conspiring to throw her and Harry together for some reason.

“Hey,” he said, walking up to the girls, pressing his hand against the small of Andie’s back, which sent tingles shooting up her spine.

“ _Hi_ , Harry,” Caitlyn said in a flirty tone, smiling at him before she subtly elbowed Andie.

Andie shot her an embarrassed wide-eyed look, causing Caitlyn to laugh out loud.

“What are you ladies talking about?” He asked, looking at Andie.

“You,” Janessa said honestly, causing Andie to snicker under her breath. It was amusing, but why would she tell him that?

“Uh, yeah. By the way, you need to stop filling Andie’s head with stuff about me, Nessa,” Harry insisted, pointing a finger at her.

“What are you talking about?” Janessa asked, trying to act innocent. Harry narrowed his eyes at her playfully.

“Oh, they were just telling me about how you like to make out with tons of girls when you’re drunk,” Andie exaggerated, smiling mischievously at Harry, wondering how he’d react to that information.

“ _What?”_ Harry scoffed out a laugh.

“That’s not true!” Janessa laughed out loud.

“That’s only happened a couple of times,” Harry protested.

“That’s not what I heard,” Andie chided, poking his side with her finger.

“Evil women. _Evil_ women,” Harry said, glaring playfully at the girls.

“You know you’re a dirty boy,” Caitlyn laughed, leaning over to smack his arm lightly.

“Don’t listen to any of them, Andie,” Harry laughed.

…

As the night progressed, Andie found herself outside in Louis’ backyard sitting around a bonfire with a bunch of their friends. She was on her fourth beer and she was feeling pretty good. She felt a bit more comfortable, seeing as Harry hadn’t left her side since he met back up with her in the basement.

“It’s going to rain,” Harry said, talking only loud enough for her to hear.

“How do you know?” She asked, looking at him skeptically.

She didn’t hear anything about rain today. And her father was literally listening to the news so loud that morning in the living room as she ate her breakfast at the dining room table.

“I can smell it,” he said with a smirk. Andie closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, consciously trying to pinpoint the smell of precipitation, but all she could smell was the bonfire.

“Do you smell it?” He asked, watching her.

“No. I can only smell the smoke,” she told him truthfully.

“C’mere,” Harry said, grabbing her hand as the two of them got up from their chairs and he led her away from the fire.

“Where are you going?” Louis yelled at them, but Harry ignored him.

Harry led her farther into the backyard away from the fire, away from the group.

“Do you smell it now?” He asked, turning toward her, his hand still in hers.

Andie once again closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This time she smelled it. It was earthy and refreshing and before she even had a chance to open her eyes again, she felt a raindrop hit her cheek.

“I _felt_ it,” she said, quickly opening her eyes to look at him.

“Ah, I just felt it too,” Harry laughed, still looking at her.

“You have a good sense of smell,” Andie told him.

“Did you smell it?” He asked her.

“Yeah, I can smell it,” she told him as she felt a droplet hit her bare shoulder.

“It’s one of my favorite smells,” Harry told her. Andie couldn’t help but smile at him as the rain started falling a bit faster.

“It’s nice,” she said, sounding a bit too breathy for her taste.

“It’s coming down harder now,” Harry pointed out.

“Let it cleanse us,” Andie laughed, throwing her arms out and tipping her head back, letting the rain fall heavily on her face. Harry laughed out loud but did the same thing. They probably looked like two lunatics, but Andie didn’t care and Harry didn’t seem to care either.

As the rain started falling harder and faster, Andie looked over to the bonfire to see everyone scramble out of their chairs.

“Andie! Harry! C’mon,” Janessa yelled at them.

“No, come here!” Andie yelled to her, waving her over.

“We’re going to get wet,” Janessa countered, but she jogged over to them anyway.

“A little rain never hurt anyone!” Andie laughed, grabbing her hand, dancing along with the music that was still playing loudly in the house.

A few other people ran out toward them, laughing, ready to dance in the rain. Soon enough the rain was coming down in waves and everyone was soaked through, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered to Andie was the freeing feeling inside of her and the smile on Harry’s face that seemed to be all for her.

His arm wrapped around her back, his other hand grabbing hers in his and he spun her around like they were on a dancefloor. Andie laughed out loud, loving the moment. And when he dipped her back, the rain cascaded down on her face and she felt dizzy, but in a good way. Harry’s strong arms pulled her back up, their chests pressed tightly against each other’s, their eyes staring into one another’s and Andie knew she’d never look at rain the same way again. She’d always remember this moment. She’d always cherish it.

When the lightning and thunder struck, some of the girls screeched loudly and took off running toward the house. But Harry and Andie were still in their moment, like they were the last two people on earth.

“Andie! Harry!” Janessa screamed through the heavy rain.

Andie quickly turned her head to find Janessa, who was already halfway back to the house and Andie realized that she and Harry weren’t the last two people on earth, they were just the last two idiots in the yard.

“C’mon,” Andie said, grabbing Harry’s hand as they ran for the house.

When they made it through the door, they were soaked straight through, dripping water onto the rug, but so were all the other people who were out there with them.

“Yo, Louis. You got clothes for us?” Harry asked his best friend.

“Yeah, you know where my room is,” Louis called back to him.

The small group of them ran up the stairs, trailing water all throughout the huge house, making their way to Louis’ bedroom. The boys were just fine fitting in Louis’ baggy clothes, but the girls, not so much. Janessa started throwing out Louis’ boxers briefs to all the girls and Andie caught one in her hand.

“Are these clean?” Andie asked, looking down at the black _Polo_ underwear in her hand.

“Louis is literally a clean freak. He gets new underwear like, every week,” Janessa told her, which Andie thought _had_ to be an exaggeration.

“Alright,” Andie said, walking up to his dresser, pulling out a white t-shirt to go with the underwear.

“Boys, get your clothes and get out!” Janessa said, shooing them out of the room.

“Oh, come on,” Liam immediately protested as he stood bare-chested with his wet shirt in his hands.

“We’ve gotta change!” Janessa told them. Andie smirked at Harry who was already stripped down to his black boxer briefs, a _lovely_ vision.

Janessa successfully shooed them out and the girls changed quickly into Louis’ clothes. Andie felt a bit over-exposed in the boxer briefs and t-shirt. She kept her black bra on, which might have been a mistake since it was soaking wet and made two big wet spots in the front of the white shirt. But what was her other option? Going braless and hoping that her nipples didn’t show through the thin fabric? _Nope_. Andie tied a knot at the back of the large t-shirt so it fit a bit better and it made her feel a little less like a drowned rat.

When the girls made it back downstairs, Janessa walked over to the fridge to grab some more beer for the girls. She quickly handed one to Andie and opened hers.

“Thanks,” Andie said as her gaze met with Harry’s from across the room.

He was still bare-chested, wearing only a pair of black _Nike_ basketball shorts that were hanging ridiculously low on his hips and she noticed he was no longer wearing his black boxer briefs. _Was he wearing any underwear at all?_ It sure didn’t look like it. She couldn’t help but stare.

A second later thunder rocked the house and another girl screeched. The lights flickered and Andie looked up instinctively, hoping that the power wouldn’t go out.

“Louis’ house has a back-up generator in case of a power outage,” Janessa told her, like she was reading her mind.

“Of course it does,” Andie said as she opened her beer and took a long swig.

“Holy shit! Nobody has ever looked so good in my clothes,” Louis said as he walked up to the girls, wrapping his arms around Janessa before leaving a wet kiss on her lips.

“Gonna have to buy new undies soon,” Janessa quipped, letting out a little snicker.

“You’re _in_ my new undies, babe,” Louis said, smiling over at her.

“See. Told you,” Janessa told Andie and she couldn’t help but laugh.

When Andie looked for Harry again, he was across the room, standing annoyingly close to Sasha. The two of them were talking and Andie felt a wave of jealousy when Sasha reached out to touch his arm as she laughed at something funny he said. And his smile, that _dimple_ , that was on his face just for Sasha in that moment was absolutely aggravating. And she realized Sasha wasn’t the only jealous girl there.

As the head-count at the party dwindled down, the boys finally sat down to play _FIFA 12_ and cheered wildly each time something good happened. The girls hung out across the room, gossiping, drinking and dancing to the music they put on. Andie was having a lot of fun with all of them, finally feeling comfortable enough to call them real friends.

She felt relieved when Sasha finally left the party around midnight. She knew she should probably go home too, but she was still mad at her father for what he said to Harry, so she said ‘fuck it’ and kept dancing.

When Caitlyn pulled Niall off the couch to dance with her and Janessa managed to pry Louis away from the screen too, all Andie could think about was dancing with Harry again. She could really feel the alcohol in her system and it was making her feel loopy. And it gave her just enough courage to go for what she wanted.

She walked over to the couch and grabbed Harry’s hands, pulling him up against her body.

“ _Hi_ ,” Harry breathed suggestively with a wide smirk on his face.

“Dance with me,” she told him, leading him over to the group that was dancing to _Party Rock Anthem_ by LMFAO.

“Dance with you, huh?” He asked as she turned in his arms and began shaking her hips.

“Yeah. Dance with me,” Andie said, swaying his arms as she danced.

He laughed, but started moving to the beat with her. And when the beat dropped halfway through, they all began jumping to the rhythm of the song.

By the time the song ended, they were all out of breath, but they were all smiling and laughing. Harry wrapped his arms around Andie and dug his face into the nape of her neck and she giggled into it. She felt his lips kissing just below her earlobe and it sent tingles up her spine.

“I fucking hate that song,” Harry breathed in her ear and Andie let out a howl of a laugh. He pulled back to look at her and they were both left laughing.

“Gonna think of you now when I hear it,” he said, smiling from ear-to-ear, his eyes half-lidded as he watched her.

“I hope you do. Maybe you’ll learn to appreciate it,” she laughed. It wasn’t necessarily a song she would listen to on a daily basis, but it sure as hell served it purpose that night.

Harry pulled her back in and put his lips up to her ear.

“Wanna stay over?” He asked her, gripping tightly onto her hips, the front of their bodies sandwiched together.

“Like sleep here?” She asked, pulling back to raise an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah. With me,” he said with a smile.

“With you?” She questioned.

“ _Mm-hmm_ ,” he hummed, causing her to let out a laugh.

 _Spend the night with Harry?_ The thought caused her entire body to flush and tingle.

“C’mon,” he said, gripping onto her hand, leading her up the stairs, causing the butterflies to riot inside her stomach.


	8. Seven

**June 2011**

“Harry… I’m not sure I should sleepover…” Andie said as he tugged her down a hallway before opening a bedroom door.

“Ah, c’mon. It’s already like two o’clock in the morning,” he said, pulling her into the bedroom, which had to have been the master bedroom. It was absolutely massive.

“Is this Louis’ parents room?” She asked, looking around at the tiered ceilings and gold accents on everything.

“Yeah. Everyone knows this is my room when his parents are out of town,” Harry said with a laugh as he shut the door and locked it.

“King shit,” Andie said with a light giggle and Harry laughed out loud.

“Fucking right,” he agreed, tugging her body to his again.

“Come on. Sleepover,” he tried to convince her again and butterflies ravaged her stomach.

“I’ll lay with you for a little bit,” she told him. She had no idea how her father would react if he woke up and she wasn’t home.

“Alright,” he said with a sideways smirk.

The two walked to the bed and Harry turned on one of the bedside lamps before walking back over to the lightswitch to shut off the main light.

Andie crawled up in the bed right before Harry. She felt awkward, but giddy at the same time. _God_ , she liked him so much.

“You bring all the girls in here, huh?” She asked, making a joke.

“ _Ha_. No. Did Janessa tell you that too? She’s lying, I swear,” Harry told her with a laugh.

“I’m kidding,” she said with a massive smile on her face.

“I was with my ex for a long time. This is the first time I’ve been single since I was like, fifteen. Everything is different. I just want to be a teenager, ya know?” He told her honestly.

“I get it. I was with my ex for a year-and-a-half. It’s a long time to be with someone at our age,” Andie empathized, really understanding his mindset.

“It is. I just want to have fun. I don’t want to be tied down anymore,” Harry told her.

“I get it,” she told him again, causing him to smile at her.

“So is it okay if I kiss you then?” He asked with a suggestive smile, causing her to let out a laugh. What? Was she supposed to say no?

“ _Mm-hmm_ ,” she hummed through a smile.

“Good,” he said, smiling back as he leaned in, pressing his lips to hers.

Harry maneuvered her onto her back, sliding his body against hers as their tongues tangled together. _Oh_ , she liked kissing him… _a lot_.

Harry’s hand found the hem of the shirt she was wearing and slipped it underneath, his fingertips tickling her skin, causing goosebumps immediately. She hummed against his mouth as her fingers fisted in his wild curls. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest.

When his hand moved farther up, touching her bra-clad breast, he snickered against her mouth.

“What?” She asked, smiling up at him.

“Your bra is still wet. Why are you even wearing it?” He chuckled, looking down at her.

“Smooth,” she giggled, rolling her eyes at him.

“What?” He laughed, sitting up.

“Oh, _‘why are you wearing your bra? You should take it off’_ ,” she laughed, lowering her voice to do a terrible impression of him. Harry tipped his head back and laughed out loud.

“I was just pointing out that it must be uncomfortable wearing something that’s wet,” he chuckled looking back at her.

“ _Mm-hmm_ ,” she hummed, smiling widely at him as she sat up in the bed.

“To each his own,” he said, holding his hands up in defense.

“To each _her_ own,” she corrected as she reached her hands behind her, pulling the shirt up in the back to unhook the bra, before tugging each strap off her shoulders through the arm holes, then tossed it on the floor next to the bed.

“Feel better?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow as he noticeably looked down at her chest.

She looked down quickly, noticing how well the outline of her nipples could be seen through the thin, damp fabric.

“Yeah. You perv,” she snickered, pushing at his shoulder.

“I’m a perv cause I like looking at you?” He laughed, heightening his eyebrows.

“No. Shut up. Come here,” she said, reaching out to him.

Harry smiled as he leaned in, kissing her, settling his body against hers again. He was still shirtless and his body was so warm, her hands heated up as they slipped around his back. His skin was so soft and his tongue felt like velvet against hers. He was absolutely incredible.

“You’re sexy. Do you know that?” Harry breathed against her mouth.

“ _Mm_ ,” she hummed, her stomach doing somersaults from his compliment.

“Thought so since the first time I saw you,” he confessed.

He was drunk and in a blatantly sexual situation with her, so it only seemed fitting that he’d be spewing compliments. But people usually spoke the truth when they were drunk, right? She supposed she’d always noticed the way he looked at her. But like, the way he seemed to reject her after the first time they kissed, really messed with her head, even though she totally understood where he was coming from. And ever since then, she seemed to make up excuses in her head for the way he looked at her. Even when he made little flirtatious comments about her appearance, she seemed to always shrug them off. But here he was calling her sexy and she wanted to believe him this time.

“ _Harry_ …” She whimpered and he let out a breath of a bashful laugh before he kissed her again.

In the back of her mind, she also thought his words might have been said to try to get her more comfortable to lead them to sex. But there was no amount of flattering words he could say to get her to have sex with him that night. Of course she thought about it. But she was just not ready. She spent a year-and-a-half with her ex-boyfriend Chase completely celibate, to the point that Chase assumed she was still a virgin. She had sex just the one time at summer camp two years ago. She felt ready then, but somehow it was never right with Chase. And with Harry, she needed a lot more time then two-and-a-half weeks to have sex with him. She barely knew him. And with that thought she realized she’d grown up a lot since her time at camp.

His hand slipped back into her shirt, this time when his hand gripped onto her breast, he was palming flesh.

“Is this okay?” He breathed against her mouth.

“ _Mm-hmm_ ,” she hummed and her heart flourished over the fact that he asked, albeit after the fact.

He leaned in to kiss her lightly on the mouth before she pressed her hands firmly enough to his chest, to get him to look at her again.

“What’s the matter?” He breathed, looking down at her as he pulled his hand out of her shirt.

“Um, I just… I just want to let you know, I-I like kissing you. But like uh, I’m not really ready to like, have sex with you right now,” she stammered rather ineloquently. But she was trying to be as honest and as up front as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was lead him on.

“Andria… of course. We’ve only known each other for two weeks,” he said with a light chuckle and she smiled, nodding her head, because… _good answer_.

“Is that why you thought I brought you up here?” He asked, sitting up again as he watched her.

“I mean…” She said, cutting her words off.

“It’s not,” he said, looking almost offended.

“Okay,” she said with a light nod.

“I’m not… I’m not looking for that… right now,” he said, looking away for a moment before focusing back on her, his expression vulnerable.

She bit her lips together, trying to stifle her smile because he was making it really hard for her not to fall head-over-heels for him.

“Right now?” She questioned, smiling at him mischievously.

“ _Right now_ ,” he said with a laugh, rolling his eyes at her.

“Okay,” she said, beaming a smile at him. He chuckled, leaning in to kiss her again.

They made out for a long time before their exhaustion got the better of them and Harry turned out the light. Andie curled up in his warm embrace, knowing she really wasn’t going to make it home that night, but tried not to think about how her father would react in the morning. That was a problem for later. She wanted to relish in the moment with Harry while she could.

“I think you’re sexy too, Harry,” Andie whispered in the dark.

“ _Mm_ ,” he hummed, sounding like he was already half asleep, but when she felt him grip her a little bit tighter in his arms, she knew he heard her and she couldn’t hold back her smile.

…

Andie was straddled over Harry. His hair was mussed up, his eyes were hooded with lust and it took everything she had not to completely jump his bones in that moment. She had never wanted to explore another person’s body more in all her life. Harry smiled up at her as his hands slipped up her bare thighs, causing goosebumps to skate across her flesh. She leaned down to kiss him as she bucked her hips against him.

“Andie,” he whined against her mouth and she could feel how hard he was below her.

“ _Shh_ ,” she hushed him as her lips kissed across his jawline before sinking down to his neck, then his chest, continuing down the expanse of his well-toned abdomen.

His breathing shuddered as she reached a particularly ticklish spot and she looked up at him with a wide smile, letting out an exhale of a laugh. He smiled back at her and it caused her body to tingle.

Her fingers wrapped around the waistband of the shorts he was wearing, but she didn’t make a move to tug them down. She continued to leave kisses on his body; around his navel, down his well-defined sex lines, just above the waistband of the shorts.

“Andie,” he whined again and she knew the teasing was getting to him. She smiled up at him again and he looked so incredibly wrecked.

His hand came down to slide gently across her cheek as he looked at her adoringly. It was sweet and she was completely intoxicated with him; his gestures, his scent, his warmth, his presence. _Everything_.

When she finally tugged down the waistband of the shorts, she was pleased to find that he wasn’t wearing any underwear. She licked her lips as she looked up to meet their vision. She smiled at him and he smiled back and she hoped after tonight things wouldn’t be weird with them. She wasn’t sure she could handle it. She really liked having him as an ally. She didn’t know how she’d get through the rest of the summer if things changed between them. He was her closest friend in New Jersey and she wanted it to stay that way.

When she gripped onto his shaft, she heard his sharp intake of breath and she couldn’t help but smile, wondering just how sensitive the appendage was. She licked her lips again before her mouth met with the head, wetting it thoroughly before her whole mouth sunk down him and he let out another shuddered breath as his fingers tangled in her hair.

She worked up a rhythm around him with her mouth and her hand, and his body began to subtly writhe below her as his fingers tightly fisted in her blonde strands, tugging only slightly. She looked up at him through her eyelashes. His eyes were shut and his mouth hung open, letting out tiny shuddered breaths as she sucked on him. He was so incredibly beautiful, every part of him.

“ _Mm_ ,” she hummed against him before pulling up, continuing the hand job as she licked down his shaft momentarily before she sucked him in again.

Her mouth made quite a few quick successions down his shaft before she did her very best to take him all in before popping off of him again.

“Oh my god, Andie,” Harry breathed, gently running his hand down her hair as he looked at her.

She dropped her mouth down again bobbing her head quickly as she sucked him and his body began writhing more significantly.

“‘m gonna… ‘m gonna come. Andie…” Harry’s words trembled out of his mouth.

“ _Mm_ ,” she hummed as she continued to devour him.

“Andie…” He hissed out her name pleasurably as his body stiffened before she felt the warm liquid fill her mouth. She took in a little bit of it before pulling off, watching as the rest spattered on his stomach.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” he said breathlessly, his attention falling on her again as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“That was _amazing_ ,” he murmured, looking so incredibly sated, it consumed her with pride. She giggled, biting at her lip.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again, licking his lips and sitting up.

“You were amazing,” he told her with a wide smile, his eyes so hooded, she wasn’t even sure they were open anymore.

“Kiss me,” he breathed a second later. She leaned in quickly, her body arched over his and left a kiss on his lips before she sat back up, looking down at the puddle on his stomach.

“ _Mm_. Gotta clean up,” he chuckled, looking down at it too.

Andie watched as he kicked off his shorts the rest of the way before he got up out of the bed and sauntered toward the bathroom. She turned to watch him, his bare ass taunting her deliciously. She thought back on the first day she saw him at _Midland Park Foods_ ; on how she checked out that very ass in his jeans as he bent over picking up his smock in the parking lot. They’d come a long way in two weeks. It made her head spin.

When Harry came back out, Andie was laying on her back on the bed, waiting for him. She wanted to kiss him again so bad. He crawled back in the bed, immediately making her silent wishes coming true by smashing his mouth against hers. His naked hips cradled between her open legs and even though she had just gotten him off, he was still half-hard against her and it did things to her.

When their lips parted, he put all the weight of his upper body on his left elbow before he pushed up the front of the t-shirt she was wearing, kissing her heated flesh. She giggled and sucked in her stomach because she was so incredibly ticklish. He snickered, looking up at her.

“It tickles,” she said a moment later.

“ _Mm_ ,” he hummed, but didn’t make another move.

A moment later, she heard a loud snore come from him.

Andie’s eyes shot open, her mind reeling. She was laying in a dim room and she could hear Harry’s soft breathing next to her, realizing they were still in Louis’ parents bedroom and the sexually explicit dream she just had wasn’t real.

“ _Holy shit_ ,” she breathed lowly, staring up at the ceiling as her heart raced in her chest.

 _Wow_. She had never had a dream like that before. She was almost shocked.

Looking over at the clock on the nightstand, she saw that it was almost nine in the morning. Her father was going to _kill_ her. Actually, he’d probably send her back to Nevada so her mom could deal with her. She knew she _needed_ to get home before that happened. She wasn’t done with New Jersey yet.

She slipped out of the bed grabbing for her bra on the floor, but it was so dark that she couldn’t find it. She had no idea where her wet clothes ended up either. How the hell was she going to go home wearing a thin white t-shirt with no bra and a pair of guys underwear? Her father would really flip shit. She knew she needed to improvise.

She walked across the room and opened the first door, finding a closet. She flipped on the light, realizing that only Louis’ dad’s clothes were in it. She thought about going into his mom’s closet instead, but she figured a woman might notice a garment missing before a man would. She let out a sigh before grabbing one of his dress shirts off its hanger. She quickly slipped it over the t-shirt and buttoned it up. It would have to do.

“Harry,” Andie whispered as she walked toward him.

“Harry,” she said again, before crawling back into the bed.

“ _Harry_ ,” she breathed into his ear before kissing his cheek.

“ _Mm_ ,” he hummed.

“I have to go home,” Andie told him.

“Oh… okay,” he mumbled, sitting up slightly.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll text you later,” she told him.

“Okay. Bye, Andie,” he told her.

“Bye, Harry,” she said, making a move to get out of the bed, but stopped when Harry caught her wrist, pulling her back to him.

He wrapped her in his arms momentarily before leaving a hardened kiss on her lips. She giggled as she pulled back. Her whole body heated up thinking about the dream she woke up from.

“Bye, Harry,” she said again as she got out of the bed.

“Bye, Andie,” he said, relaxing against the pillow again.

Andie quietly and carefully closed the bedroom door after she left the room and tiptoed down the hallway so as to not wake anyone else up. But when she heard voices in the kitchen and smelled the waft of food, she knew she wasn’t the only one up. She quickly went downstairs to find her purse that was shoved into one of the cabinets of the bar to keep it out of the way of everyone, then made her way back upstairs.

When she turned the corner to go past the kitchen, she found Louis and Janessa making breakfast together.

“Andie!” Louis said happily.

“Hi,” she squeaked out.

“Did you sleep well?” He asked, his eyebrow cocking suspiciously and she knew he knew who she went to bed with the night before. Janessa’s ear-to-ear smile was also pretty obvious.

“Don’t go making assumptions,” Andie said with a snicker.

“I don’t know what you mean, babe,” Louis said, feigning offense.

“We _slept_. That’s it,” she told them.

“Uh-huh,” Louis said with a look of bullshit.

“You want some breakfast?” Janessa asked, her smile never fading.

“Oh, uh, thanks, but I really have to get home,” Andie told her.

“We’ve got plenty,” Louis chimed in.

“Thanks, but seriously, my father is probably going to kill me,” Andie said, pointing back toward the general vicinity of the front door.

“Alright. Next time,” Louis told her.

“Next time,” she said with a smile and a nod of her head before she turned to leave, but stopped quickly in her tracks.

“Oh, Louis. I had to borrow one of your dad’s shirts,” Andie told him as she held her arms out to show him.

“Oh, that’s cool. Don’t worry about it,” he told her, waving it off.

“Alright. I’ve gotta go. Thanks for having me,” Andie said, feeling awkward.

“Yeah. It was fun,” Louis said with a smile.

“I’ll walk you out,” Janessa said, smiling widely at her.

“Alright,” Andie said, not even sure where the hell her shoes were. She wasn’t leaving with any of her stuff, except her cell phone and purse.

“So, you and Harry…” Janessa said in a way that sounded like she was pressing her for information. The implication in her tone spoke volumes.

“I swear, we didn’t,” Andie said, shaking her head as the two of them walked out on the front step.

“You slept together in Louis’ parent’s room,” Janessa pointed out.

“Yeah, we literally _slept_. I was pretty drunk,” Andie said, feeling like she still might be a little drunk.

“That’s what they all say,” Janessa giggled.

“We _didn’t_ have sex,” Andie said bluntly, making sure she got the point.

“He likes you. I can tell,” Janessa told her.

“He also told me he’s not looking for anything serious,” Andie countered.

“Neither are you! It’s perfect!” Janessa laughed.

“Yeah, _perfect_ ,” Andie replied dryly, knowing it wasn’t.

“One of these days…” Janessa insisted, smiling hopefully at her.

“Yeah. Hey, listen. I’ve got to get home. I was supposed to be home last night,” Andie told her.

“Oh, shit. Yeah. I’ll see you,” Janessa said, wrapping her arms around Andie for a hug.

“Yeah, bye,” Andie said as she made her way down the driveway and crossed the road to her father’s house.

When she got up to the door it swung open, Mrs. Tate standing in front of her.

“Andria, _where_ have you been?” She gasped.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Rose. I was just… I was just across the street,” Andie told her, feeling bad that she’d been worrying.

“Mr. Ellis, she’s home!” Rose bellowed into the house to her father.

Andie’s face heated up at the thought of her father worrying about her. It was such a foreign concept for her. As Andie made her way into the foyer, her father turned the corner staring at her with concerned eyes.

“Andria! Where have you been?” He growled.

“I was across the street at my friend’s house,” she said as nonchalantly as she could, trying to calm him down with her tone.

“I told you to be home at a reasonable hour,” he shot at her.

“Yeah, uh. I fell asleep,” she told him, biting at her lip.

“What are you _wearing?”_ He snapped, taking a good look at her ridiculous outfit.

“Um, my clothes got wet from the rain last night and I couldn’t find them this morning,” she told him.

“You couldn’t _find_ them?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“You have no _idea_ what I’m thinking. Your recklessness knows no bounds,” he grumbled.

“My recklessness? I was just across the street. What do you care anyway?” She snapped at him and his eyes flared.

“You are my responsibility this summer, young lady! And you’re not going to be traipsing around with that _boy_ , acting like a fool. You are my daughter and you have a reputation to uphold,” he lectured her.

It took all she had not to laugh in his face. His idea of parenting was entirely comical.

“Harry is my friend and he hasn’t done anything to warrant a bad attitude from you. Oh! And another thing, don’t _ever_ threaten him again. You have no right to say something like that to him!” She snapped angrily.

“You better watch your tone,” he growled.

“Or what? Are you going to send me to _camp?”_ She threw at him, narrowing her eyes. With a huff she walked past him and ran up the staircase to her room.

“Andria!” He shouted after her, but she ignored him.

She quickly stripped off her borrowed clothing and jumped into the shower. She felt disgusting from her night of drinking. After her shower she laid down in bed, quickly sending Harry a text to _please_ find her bra in the bedroom before Louis’ parents did. Then she fell asleep, hoping she’d be able to sleep the rest of the day away.

A little while later, she was being shaken awake. Her eyes opened to find Harry standing over her and she quickly wondered if she was still dreaming.

“Harry?” She questioned, sitting up in bed, making sure the blanket didn’t drop away from her naked body.

“I knocked a couple times, but you didn’t answer,” he said with a sideway smirk.

“Oh,” she said, looking at her door, which he must have closed again when he came in.

“Does my father know you’re here?” She asked, looking back at him again.

“I don’t think so. Your housekeeper let me in. I told her I have your clothes from last night,” he said, holding up a _Whole Foods_ tote bag for her.

“Oh, okay. I don’t even know if he’s home, but _ugh_. He’s so annoying,” Andie grumbled.

“Did you get in trouble for not coming home last night?” Harry asked as he set down the bag and sat down on the edge of her bed.

“He yelled at me, but like, what can he do? Oh, and I told him he better not ever threaten you again,” she told him.

“You did?” Harry asked, his eyes going wide.

“Yes. I mean, it’s just… he’s _annoying_. Like, I feel like I’m being a huge brat right now, but I can’t help but… but like, hold this grudge against him, you know? He was never there for me, pretty much _ever_. If he managed to remember my birthday, he’d send some cash in a card. He wouldn’t even call to wish me a happy birthday. And like, the time I came here to spend the summer with him two years ago, he sent me away to camp almost immediately. I just… it’s hard to not be angry at him when he’s alienated me all my life,” she ranted, feeling the anger in her chest.

“Whoa,” Harry said, watching her, his expression shocked.

“I’m sorry. _God._ I don’t need to be laying all this on you,” she groaned, running her hand through her hair.

“No. It’s okay. Really. I don’t have the greatest relationship with my bio-dad either,” he told her.

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s an alcoholic and cheated on my mom a lot before she finally divorced him,” Harry explained.

“That sucks, Harry. I’m sorry,” Andie told him sadly.

“It’s okay. Things are better for me. My step-dad is really cool and my mom is happy,” he said with a smile.

“That’s great,” Andie said, smiling up at him.

“It is.”

“So, uh… did you just leave Louis’?” Andie asked, looking over at the clock, noticing it was after three pm.

“Oh, yeah. I think I slept ‘til noon and then Louis and I played some _FIFA_ for a while,” Harry told her.

“Oh, um, did you get my text?” She asked, lifting an eyebrow in question.

“Uh, about your bra? Yeah,” Harry said with a laugh.

“Thank you,” she giggled.

“It was literally right on the floor. I’m surprised you didn’t see it,” he chuckled.

“Shut up. It was dark. I looked for it, I swear,” she said through a laugh.

“I turned on the light and it was right on the floor,” he laughed.

“Oh my god. I’m pretty sure I was still drunk this morning,” she giggled into the back of her hand.

“‘s okay,” he said with a sideways smirk, heightening an eyebrow as he looked down at her bare shoulders.

“Are you… _naked_ under there?” He asked, smiling mischievously at her.

“What?” She asked, looking down at the blanket covering up her chest.

“You’re naked?” He asked again.

“Uh… I took a shower when I got home,” she said, biting her lip and she could feel her cheeks heat up.

“ _Mm. Andria_ ,” he hummed suggestively, his eyes becoming hooded almost immediately. _Was she dreaming? Was this a dream?_

“Oh my god, Harry,” she giggled, rolling her eyes at him.

“What?” He asked, reaching out to hook his index finger on the blanket.

“Harry,” she giggled, pulling it a bit tighter against her.

“What?” He breathed, leaning in to hover his mouth over hers. Her breathing hitched almost immediately, wanting him to kiss her so bad.

“Andria,” he breathed against her mouth.

“Harry,” she whimpered, smiling against his lips.

When he finally kissed her, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him on top of her. As his tongue slipped into her mouth, she slid hers against his, relishing in all the feels of him; from his tongue, to his body, to the way he made her heart race and her body tingle.

A moment later, they were interrupted by a loud knock on her door.

“Andria?” She heard her father’s voice.

“Shit! _Hide_ ,” Andie whispered as she shoved Harry off of her.

“Just a second!” She shouted to her father. She jumped out of bed, forgetting she was still completely naked.

“ _Ooh_ ,” she heard Harry react, looking over at him to see him ogling her.

“ _Harry_ ,” she hissed lowly and his mouth turned up into a wide smile.

“Oh my god,” she said, grabbing her robe to throw it on.

“Get in the closet,” she whispered, dashing over to him before throwing open the closet door and shoving him in quickly.

“Uh, hi,” she greeted her father when she finally opened the bedroom door.

“Why are you in your robe?” He asked immediately.

“Uh, I was just about to get into the shower,” she told him, the lie coming to her easier than she thought it would.

“Oh. Well, I have to go into the office for a little while. I just wanted to let you know I won’t be here for dinner. Mrs. Tate can make something for you,” he told her.

“No, no. I can find something. You can just tell her to take the night off,” Andie said, waving her hand through the air.

“Oh, alright,” he said with a nod, lingering in her doorway for a few moments.

“Alright. Thanks,” Andie said impatiently.

“Alright,” he said, looking around the room for a moment before he nodded and walked down the hallway.

Andie let out an anxious breath as she shut her bedroom door. When she opened up the closet, she let out a loud laugh, finding Harry with a wide mischievous smile, wearing her hot pink maxi dress over his clothes.

“ _Oh my god_ , Harry,” she giggled.

“What?” He asked as innocently as possible, smirking mischievously at her.

“You’re such a pretty little girl,” she joked, unable to keep the smile off her face.

“ _‘I feel pretty. Oh, so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and bright’_ ,” he sang one of the iconic songs from _West Side Story_ , twirling around to make the skirt flutter through the air.

“Oh my god,” she laughed out loud, rolling her eyes at him.

She was certain her summer would never get boring with him around.


	9. Eight

**July 2011**

“ _Andria_ …” She heard Harry’s voice floating through the hallway outside her bedroom door and her head immediately perked up.

“Yeah?” She questioned, wondering how he, once again, was able to sneak up to her room without being noticed by her father. She wondered if maybe Mrs. Tate let him up purposely to defy him somehow. He was an ass to her most of the time, so it made sense.

“ _Hell-ooo_ ,” Harry greeted theatrically, quickly appearing in her doorway with his hands splayed against each side of her door frame.

He was wearing an American flag onesie, American flag themed sunglasses and a wild red, white and blue light-up headband on his head. She let out a boisterous laugh at the sight of him.

“Happy _freakin’_ birthday, America!” He said boldly as she giggled.

“ _Wow_ ,” Andie told him as she really got a good look at his outfit.

Her white tank top with the American flag on it was quivering in shame compared to his get-up.

“All you need now is a bald eagle perched on your shoulder,” Andie joked and Harry let out a loud laugh.

“He’s in the car. Are you ready?” He asked, eyeing the bag she was zipping up next to her.

“Ready,” she said.

“That’s what you’re wearing?” He asked as she stood up.

“Yeah. Why?” She asked, looking down at her tank top and jean shorts.

“I know you’re new around here, but we go _all-out_ for the 4th of July,” he told her.

“Sorry. I left my Lady Liberty costume in Nevada,” she snickered.

“Ha-ha,” he deadpanned.

“My nails are red, white and blue,” she said, wiggling her fingers in front of her to show him.

“You get an ‘A’ for effort,” he chuckled.

“Effort?” She laughed.

“Yeah. Come on,” he said, grabbing her bag off the bed, throwing it over his shoulder. She laughed, quickly grabbing her purse before following him out.

Andie could hear her father talking on the phone in his office and she knew she wasn’t supposed to disturb him, so she ignored the fact that she should probably tell him she was leaving. On her way out, she said a quick goodbye to Mrs. Tate and asked if she could let her father know she left.

Harry and Andie walked across the street to Louis’ just as he and Janessa were walking out of the house. Andie let out a loud laugh when she saw what Louis was wearing. An American flag themed sleeveless t-shirt with a majestic looking wolf plastered on the front of it, paired with ripped jean shorts and a brown mullet wig on his head that had an American flag bandana wrapped around it.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Andie laughed.

“Do you love it?” Louis asked excitedly, holding out his arms to let her get a good look.

“Yes. Yes, I do,” she laughed.

“They’re idiots,” Janessa laughed. Andie was relieved to see that she was dressed modestly in a red, white and blue tie dyed maxi dress.

“Thank god someone else is dressed like a normal person,” Janessa laughed, holding her arms out to hug Andie.

“I had no idea everyone was so… _patriotic_ around here,” Andie snickered.

“Uh, it’s mainly the guys. I’m sure it’s going to get pretty wild tonight,” Janessa laughed as the four of them walked to Louis’ black _Cadillac Escalade_ before getting in.

They were headed into New York City for the night, where they would be staying at Louis’ family’s penthouse that looked out over Central Park, which apparently would have a perfect view of the Independence Day firework display that evening.

Apparently, there were going to be a number of their friends making the almost hour-long drive to the city to spend the holiday partying with them. Andie was excited because she’d never actually spent time in New York, unless being at the airport counted. And it _didn’t_ in her book.

“Are you excited?” Harry asked her with a wide smile on his face.

“You have no idea,” she said, smiling back at him.

“Have you ever been to New York before?” He asked.

“Um. Just the airport,” she said with a laugh.

“So, you’ve never actually been to Manhattan then?” He questioned.

“No,” she told him.

“Hey, guys. We’ve got a New York virgin here,” Harry called to Louis and Janessa.

“Really?” Janessa asked, turning around to look at Andie.

“You’ve never been to New York?” Louis asked, looking at her through the rear-view mirror.

“Uh, nope,” she said, letting out a little laugh. They seemed to forget she wasn’t from around there.

“Have you been to Vegas?” She countered. The equivalent of them living outside of Manhattan was the same as her living outside of Las Vegas.

Harry and Janessa said no, while Louis chimed in with a proud “yes”.

“Of course you have,” Andie laughed.

“Louis’ been everywhere,” Harry told her.

When they finally made it into the city, Andie’s eyes were plastered out the window of the vehicle. There was so much to see.

“Want me to drive through Times Square for you?” Louis asked Andie.

“Could you?” She asked, looking at him wide-eyed.

“Of course,” he said with a smile.

“Oh my god,” she said excitedly, looking at Harry with a big smile on her face.

“You’re cute,” he told her and it made her immediately blush. She let out a little laugh before she looked out the window again.

She kind of had an idea in her mind about how Times Square looked from seeing it on TV, but it honestly didn’t compare at all to being there. It was like sensory overload. There was so much to see and she was sure she would never be able to see it all from a car window.

“I’d park and let you walk around, but parking here is a fucking nightmare and we have to get to the penthouse cause people are going to start showing up soon,” Louis told her.

“Oh, no. It’s cool. Thank you for driving down here,” she said, waving her hand through the air to brush it off. She was happy just seeing it from the car window.

When they finally got into the Tomlinson’s Manhattan penthouse, Andie was in complete awe. She had never been in such a large apartment before. And the views out of every window were amazing. They were on the 68th floor of the building, so they could see just about everything. She never realized how massive Central Park was. It was pretty much as far as the eye could see.

Their friends started showing up not long after they got there. Andie was surprised that there were only about fifteen people who came because she was expecting a massive turn out like Louis’ usual parties. It was nice to see that Louis actually had a limit. She was also pleasantly surprised that Sasha wasn’t a part of the group that showed up. She knew the night was destined to be good just because of that fact.

...

Andie was already two very strong drinks in when Louis shouted _“time for shots!”_ to everyone in the vicinity.

“Time for shots,” Janessa repeated excitedly, looking over at Andie with a smile before following her boyfriend into the kitchen.

Andie let out a laugh and looked around the vast living room, her eyes locking on Harry’s as he walked toward her. Her smile was instant and his turned up when he saw hers.

“Didn’t you hear? It’s _time for shots_ ,” he said, exaggerating the last few words.

“Oh, I _heard_ ,” she snickered.

“What kind of shots do you think there’ll be? Tetanus? Diphtheria? Influenza?” Harry joked, snickering under his breath.

“ _Oh my god_. That was _so_ bad,” Andie teased, laughing out loud as she shoved his shoulder.

“What? I’m funny,” he chuckled as his smile took over his entire expression.

“You’re _hilarious_ ,” Andie deadpanned, letting out a laugh as she turned and made her way toward the kitchen, Harry following right behind her.

Louis was pouring numerous tequila shots as they walked in and all Andie could do was turn her nose up at it. Tequila? _Gag_.

“ _Oof_. No need for tetanus or diphtheria shots when you have tequila flowing through your veins,” Harry mumbled under his breath for only Andie to hear and she let out a loud laugh, which caused a few of the people in the group, including Louis and Janessa, to look over at them.

Andie bit her lips between her teeth to stifle her laugh as she looked between the two of them, registering both of their smiles and knowing glances. She almost felt like she was talking out of turn in class and needed to hush herself.

“ _Jeez_. What were those looks for?” Harry whispered in her ear, chuckling under his breath.

“Pretty sure they’re going to be singing _‘Harry and Andie sitting in a tree’_ pretty soon,” Andie chuckled, looking over at him. He let out a laugh just as Louis held out two shots for them to take.

“Uh… Tequila? No,” Andie said, shaking her head as Harry grabbed his shot.

“ _Drink it_ , Andria,” Louis said sternly, jutting it out farther in her direction.

“Take the shot. Get vaccinated,” Harry told her and she let out another laugh as she finally grabbed the shot from Louis.

“‘Atta girl,” Louis said, giving her a proud smile.

“I’ve never felt so peer pressured in all my life,” Andie mumbled under her breath.

“This isn’t the last of it, Andria,” Louis said, letting out a laugh.

Louis made sure they all had shots before he quickly told them they didn’t have any limes to cut the bitter taste of the alcohol. A moment later he was counting down from three to one and they were all taking their shots.

“Another!” Their friend Eric shouted as she slammed his tiny plastic shot cup on the countertop.

“‘Atta boy!” Louis said as he picked up the bottle of tequila and started filling their shot cups again.

“Oh my god, no,” Andie said, trying to avert her cup away from him, but he gripped onto her wrist to steady the cup and filled it, letting out a laugh as he did.

“Told you this isn’t the last of it,” Louis said, bouncing his eyebrows at her as he moved on to fill Harry’s cup.

“Sounds quite ominous,” Andie said, looking down at the yellowish liquor in her cup.

“Just take the shot,” Louis chuckled as he walked back over to the counter and poured himself a shot before putting down the bottle.

“It’s better not to argue,” Harry chuckled.

“Says the guy who’s used to drinking this much,” she giggled, cocking her eyebrow at him.

“I don’t drink _that_ much,” he laughed, the sideways smirk on his lips giving her goosebumps.

Another small countdown later, and they were all taking their second consecutive shot.

“Oh my god! I love this song!” Caitlyn yelled, grabbing onto Janessa’s arm, pulling her back to the living room as Nicki Minaj’s _Super Bass_ began blasting through the speakers.

“I need a smoke. Harry?” Louis said, asking him if he wanted to go with him.

“Uh. I just had one. You go,” Harry told him.

“Uh-huh. _Sure_ ,” Louis said skeptically, looking between him and Andie for a moment before he chuckled and walked off with a few of the guys.

“ _Oh_ ,” Andie said, startled as her phone buzzed in her back pocket.

“What?” Harry asked as she pulled it out and saw a text from her father.

 **_Father:_ ** _Where did you go? When will you be home?_

She rolled her eyes immediately. They literally just had the conversation the night before about her going out for the fourth of July. He was losing his damn marbles. And of course he would text _now_. Just as she was really starting to have fun.

“Ugh. My father is texting me,” Andie grumbled as she began typing out a reply.

 **_Andie:_ ** _Won’t make it home tonight. In the city with friends._

 **_Father:_ ** _I did not give you permission to stay out all night, Andria._

 **_Andie:_ ** _Last I checked, you told me it was okay to go into the city with friends today._

 **_Father:_ ** _Today. Not all night._

“Looks serious,” Harry said, reaching out to slide his finger down the crease between her eyebrows.

She stopped texting immediately as she quickly looked up at him, her mouth hung open as she stared at him. The smirk was back on his lips and the butterflies fluttered violently in her stomach.

He cocked his eyebrow a moment later, snapping her out of her adoration.

“Oh, uh. He’s being an ass,” Andie said, looking down at her phone again, quickly completing her text before sending it.

 **_Andie:_ ** _There’s no way I can make it home tonight. Unless you want me to hitchhike._

“He’s nothing if not consistent,” Harry chuckled under his breath.

“Unfortunately,” Andie grumbled as her phone buzzed in her hand again.

 **_Father:_ ** _You know that’s not what I’m asking._

 **_Andie:_ ** _I’ll be home tomorrow._

 **_Father:_ ** _We’re going to talk about this when you get home._

 **_Andie:_ ** _Looking forward to it._

Andie rolled her eyes as she shoved her phone into her back pocket.

“Everything cool?” Harry asked, smiling at her.

“Uh, yeah. He’s delusional. He’s saying he didn’t give me permission to stay out all night,” she said, rolling her eyes again.

“So, what is he going to do?”

“He can’t do anything right now, can he?” She said with a sly smile as she bounced her eyebrows. Harry let out a laugh.

“I guess not,” he chuckled.

“Do you want me to make you a drink?” Harry asked a moment later, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yes, please,” she said with a wide smile as the two of them moved toward the kitchen counter where there were a bunch of bottles of alcohol and mixers.

The two of them ended up making matching fruity concoctions.

“ _Mm_. ‘s good,” Harry hummed into his cup.

“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a fruity drink type,” Andie giggled into her own cup.

“Appearances can be deceiving. On the outside, I may look like a masculine, muscular, badass, babe-magent. But on the inside, I’m gooey like a marshmallow,” Harry told her, heightening his eyebrows at her. Andie laughed out loud, almost choking on the sip of her drink she took.

“What? You don’t think I’m sensitive?” He laughed.

“I don’t know. Are you?” She giggled, cocking an eyebrow in obvious skepticism.

“I can be,” he said as his laughter died off, looking into her eyes.

“ _Hmm_ ,” she hummed, biting at her bottom lip as she stared back at him.

As Harry leaned in toward her, her stomach flipped and flopped, and her brain tingled in her skull. When his lips covered hers, her heart began beating heavy in her chest. No matter how many times he kissed her, she couldn’t get over the butterflies. _Oh, she liked him so much_.

A moment later, she felt her phone buzz in her back pocket again and she involuntarily groaned against his mouth.

“What? Was it bad?” He chuckled.

“No. My phone,” she sighed, pulling it out again.

She was relieved it wasn’t her father, but when she saw a text from her mom, she knew it had everything to do with her father.

 **_Mom:_ ** _Are you having fun in New York with your friends?_

 **_Andie:_ ** _Yes…_

 **_Mom:_ ** _Your father just called me_

 **_Andie:_ ** _I figured as much._

 **_Mom:_ ** _You’re going to give that man a heart attack one of these days_

 **_Andie:_ ** _HE is going to give himself a heart attack_

 **_Mom:_ ** _He says you didn’t tell him you were going to be out all night_

 **_Andie:_ ** _He’s senile. We definitely talked about it._

“Your dad again?” Harry asked, looking over at her texting manically on her phone.

“Ha. No. It’s my mom. But she’s texting because he called her,” Andie said, letting out a breath of a laugh as she rolled her eyes.

 **_Mom:_ ** _Are you being safe?_

 **_Andie:_ ** _I always am_

 **_Mom:_ ** _You’re not roaming around the city are you?_

 **_Andie:_ ** _We’re in a penthouse in the middle of Manhattan. I’m not leaving until the morning. No roaming, I promise._

 **_Mom:_ ** _Swanky_

 **_Andie:_ ** _I’m living the life of the 1% now_

 **_Mom:_ ** _Wow. I’m never going to get you back. Cute boys and the lap of luxury are stealing you from me._

 **_Andie:_ ** _LOL_

 **_Mom:_ ** _Alright. Have fun. Be safe. I love you._

 **_Andie:_ ** _I love you too_

“Okay. _Ugh_ ,” Andie sighed, shoving her phone back in her pocket.

“Are you finished being preoccupied?”

“Does your soft squishy marshmallow center need attention?” Andie cooed, poking her finger into his tummy.

“Yes. Always,” Harry chuckled, squirming a little bit as he swatted her hand away and rubbed his stomach. Andie couldn’t help but giggle. She would gladly give him _all_ her attention.

“Fireworks are starting!” They heard Louis bellow from the living room.

“Fireworks!” Harry said happily, sending her a very excited look, and in that moment, she was able to clearly see the sweet boyish side of him.

“You really like fireworks, huh?” She asked, smiling softly at him as the two of them walked into the living room to make their way toward the balcony.

“Fuck yeah! _‘Merica!_ ” He proclaimed comically, thrusting his fist through the air, and she couldn’t help but laugh when his cheesy funny side came back.

“Let freedom ring,” she giggled as Harry opened the balcony door for her.

The fireworks were incredible. Andie was in complete awe of where she was and how amazing it all was to her. In just one short month she met so many great people. She never thought anything like this would happen to her when she planned her summer trip to New Jersey. She looked across the balcony at her new friends and felt so much love for all of them. And when she felt Harry’s arm slide around her shoulder, her entire stomach twisted and turned with happiness.

...

Liam was rambling about something. Andie was sure he was talking about space or something. She knew if she wasn’t so out of her mind, she’d really enjoy the conversation. He was so passionate about what he was saying as she sat there watching his lips move, the words vibrating out of his mouth.

The two of them just shared an entire blunt with Niall and Caitlyn, and Andie’s mind was going wild. She’d been high before. But not _this_ high. She was _so_ high. So fucking high that she couldn’t even follow along to what Liam was talking about. But he was pretty as fuck as he was doing it, so she continued to pretend like she was listening. She bit at her lip and Liam looked back at her.

“You know what I’m saying?” He asked and she nodded, letting out a quiet, “uh-huh”.

“But like, Carl Sagan was on to something, like he _—_ ”

“Jesus Christ, Payno. Shut the fuck up already,” Harry laughed, cutting him off as he walked over to them.

“Harry!” Liam said excitedly when he saw his friend.

Andie’s vision was exclusively on him now. _Harry._ Aw, she _really_ liked Harry. He was _so_ pretty.

“You got anymore, Payno?” Harry asked, patting his friend’s shoulder before he sat down on the couch, _so_ close to Andie.

She was staring at him, she knew she was. But her mind was all off-kilter and her reaction time was slowed down to a snail’s pace. She vaguely registered Liam passing a pipe and a lighter to Harry. When he looked over at her and smiled, she still didn’t stop staring at him.

“Hi,” he said, bouncing his eyebrows at her.

“Hi,” she said, feeling her lips pull up into a wide smile.

“You’re _super_ high, aren’t you?” Harry asked with a sideways smirk.

“We’re toasted,” Liam laughed and she could hear Niall and Caitlyn snickering from somewhere on the other side of Harry.

Andie bit her lip to try to stifle her massive smile, but never made a move to stop staring at Harry. She watched as Harry lit up the bowl and puffed on it before sucking in the smoke and holding it in for a few seconds, then exhaling. He did it so smoothly. It was sexy.

He was still wearing that god awful light-up 4th of July headband on his head, but he was also still the most beautiful person in the room. She watched as he did a few more hits before passing the pipe and lighter back to Liam.

“I’m thirsty,” Andie said, feeling the entire absence of saliva in her mouth.

Harry breathed out a laugh before replying, “cotton mouth”.

His eyes were mere slits as he looked back at her and she knew the weed was already affecting him. She let a giggle bubble out of her and he laughed too and soon Liam was laughing with them.

“Holy shit, you fucking pot heads,” Louis laughed as he walked up to them. That only made Andie giggle more.

“I want some of what she’s smoking,” Louis chuckled, pointing at Andie.

“She’s high as hell,” Harry told him with a laugh.

“I can see that,” Louis chuckled and Andie noticed he’d finally taken off that stupid patriotic mullet wig.

“Oh my god. What is in your cup?” Andie asked Louis excitedly, her eyes going wide when she saw the red plastic cup in his hand.

“Jack and Coke. You want some?” Louis asked, holding it out to her.

“Yes! _Oh my god_ ,” she sighed happily, grabbing it from him before beginning to gulp it down.

“Whoa, whoa. Andie,” Harry warned, grabbing her wrist to signal her to stop.

“Damn, girl,” Louis laughed.

“You’re not gonna wanna chug Jack and Coke, babe,” Harry laughed.

“Oh,” she said with a giggle.

“Not the way I mix it,” Louis laughed, grabbing his cup from her.

“I’m just _so_ thirsty,” she said with another giggle.

“C’mon. Let’s get you some water,” Harry said, patting her knee before he stood up.

He reached out his hands for her to take them and then pulled her up, flush against his body.

“ _Mm_ ,” she hummed, looking into his eyes. She really wanted to kiss him.

“You two hooking up yet, or what?” Niall commented.

Andie turned her head to look at Niall, who had Caitlyn on his lap. She brought her finger up to her lip before loudly saying, _“shhhh”_ as a joke.

Niall let out a loud, boisterous laugh and Caitlyn giggled in his arms.

“Get it, girl,” Caitlyn cheered as Harry tugged on Andie’s hand to lead her to the kitchen.

“Oh my god. They think we’re hooking up,” Andie tried to whisper to Harry, but it came out louder than she expected it to.

“That’s what happens when you _imply_ it,” Harry said with a laugh.

“Oh my god. I’m so fucked up right now,” she giggled as Harry pulled open the fridge, grabbing two bottles of water.

“ _Oh-my-god-thank-you_ ,” Andie said in one quick run-on before twisting it open and sucking half of it down in one breath.

“I’m never going to forget you this way,” Harry said, looking over at her with a fond smile on his face.

“What?” She asked, smiling back at him.

“You’re cute,” he said, bouncing his eyebrows.

“I seem to recall you thinking I’m _sexy_ ,” she countered boldy, bringing up the other night when they made-out in Louis’ parent’s room.

“That too,” he said as his smile got wider.

“ _Mm_ ,” she hummed, biting both of her lips between her teeth to try to suppress the smile that wanted to eat her face alive.

Harry stepped closer to her, pressing her against the kitchen counter.

“I think you’re _very_ sexy, Andria Ellis,” he breathed lowly against her lips.

A shiver of pleasure raced through her entire body from the sexual tension between them and she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her lips firmly to his. He adapted quickly, tugging her closer to him with his hands on the small of her back as his tongue slid smoothly against hers.

She was certain she’d never been so turned on in all her life. But even through the fog in her mind, she knew she didn’t want to have sex with him under these circumstances - not when she was sure she wouldn’t remember it in the morning. But other things… _other things_ she was willing to do. She was ready to make her dirty dream a reality.

…

Andie woke up half-naked, sandwiched between Harry and Liam in one of the guest bedrooms in the penthouse apartment. She was only in her bra and underwear and neither of the boys were wearing a shirt. _Oh, god._ Her heart was beating wildly as she tried to remember what the hell happened the night before. How the hell did Liam end up in bed with them? She was praying some sort of threesome hadn’t gone down between them.

She was almost scared to lift up the blanket to confirm that the boys were still dressed. She psyched herself out a couple of times, but finally lifted it, relieved to find them both in their underwear. _Thank god_.

She could already feel the pain wrapping around her brain from all the shit she put into her body the night before. Never again would she drink and smoke in the same night. She actually didn’t really want to smoke ever again, remembering how much of a dazed-out dumbass she became. She was literally the hot-mess-express. _Ugh_.

She barely remembered much after kissing Harry in the kitchen. She just knew they found a room to go into and that his penis was in her mouth at some point. _God_ , she hoped it didn’t go any further than that. Nothing like losing her re-virginized virginity in a haze of bad choices, _ugh_. When she moved in the bed, Harry woke up, looking over at her with only one eye open.

“ _Mm_ ,” he groaned before closing his eye. Andie couldn’t help but giggle.

“What time is it?” He breathed in his raspy morning voice and it made her smile.

“Dunno,” she told him.

“Why is Liam in bed with us?” He questioned a moment later, lifting his head up to look over at his passed out friend.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Andie giggled quietly. She heard about people being black-out drunk, but never lived it until last night.

“What the fuck happened?” Harry groaned, dropping his head against the pillow again.

“I honestly do not know,” she told him with a laugh.

...

The car ride back to New Jersey was absolutely silent. They were all so fucking hungover, it wasn’t even funny. Louis made Janessa drive because he was sure he might throw up if he had to pay attention to the road. Harry and Andie fell asleep in the backseat for a while.

Andie woke up a little while later to Louis and Janessa talking in the front seat.

“Harry and Andie hooked up last night,” Janessa told Louis quietly. _Oh, god_. How did she know?

“Did they really?” Louis asked, sounding intrigued.

“Yeah. Caitlyn told me her and Niall walked in on the two of them in one of the bedrooms. Pretty sure she was giving him an _oral favor_ , if you know what I mean,” Janessa told him. _Oh, dear god_.

Andie was absolutely mortified. Niall and Caitlyn walked in on them? _Oh, god_.

“ _Finally_. Those two have been dancing around each other for weeks. We all knew it was going to happen,” Louis said, sounding proud of the two of them, but Andie felt sick to her stomach. She really didn’t want the whole world to know.

“I know. They both keep saying how neither of them want anything, but you can plain-as-day see them falling for each other,” Janessa snickered.

“Oh, for sure,” Louis said with a little laugh.

 _Oh, god_. Was she _that_ obvious with her crush? She, in all honesty, _didn’t_ want anything when she came to New Jersey, but immediately after meeting Harry she was entirely smitten and she knew it couldn’t have been helped. She had no choice in the matter. He was a force that couldn’t be stopped.

Janessa and Louis went silent a few moments later and Andie sat there, her body pressed against the door with Harry’s head on her lap, running Janessa and Louis’ conversation over and over in her head, along with all her interactions with Harry over the past month. And she realized that he was ‘Captain’ and she was ‘Obvious’ because that was what they were.

…

They dropped Harry off first when they got back to New Jersey, which only made sense, but it really made it hard for Andie to be able to talk with him about what happened the night before. So she built up the courage to call him that evening because she _really_ needed to know. Her memories were blurry at best and came back in little snippets. She didn’t even know if they had sex or not, which was the worst feeling. And she really had no idea how in the hell Liam ended up in bed with them.

“Hi,” she squeaked into the phone when he answered.

“Hey,” he greeted her.

“So, um, last night, huh?” She asked awkwardly.

“Uh, yeah…” Harry said with an uncomfortable chuckle.

“Um, so I have a few questions,” she began.

She was so nervous, but she didn’t know why. She and Harry had really grown into _best_ friends over the past month, which slowly turned into occasional make-out buddies. She figured it only made sense for them to go further with each other, if there was consent on both sides. It was a natural progression, wasn’t it?

“Okay,” he said, sounding a bit weary.

“Um, so I don’t really remember what happened after we were in the kitchen. I mean, I remember _some_ of it, but um, not a lot,” she explained.

“Yeah. It’s a bit fuzzy,” Harry told her. _Great_. He didn’t remember either?

“We uh… I uh… did I, um… I gave you a blow job?” She stammered, feeling her whole body heat up by saying it out loud.

“Um, yeah,” he told her, then let out a little laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” She scoffed at him, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

“I’m not laughing at you, _I swear_. It was just funny how you said it,” Harry chuckled over the other end of the line.

“Shut up,” she said with a laugh, rolling her eyes.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said as his laughter died off.

“So, I mean, is that all we did?” She asked.

“Yeah. You kinda passed out afterward,” he said with a breath of a laugh.

“I did?” She asked, heightening her eyebrows in surprise.

“You did. You were pretty messed up,” he snickered.

“So we… we didn’t… have sex?” She choked out.

“No. _Andie_ ,” he said, exaggerating her name a little bit.

“What?” She asked incredulously. Why did he think it was such a ridiculous question?

“We’ve both talked about it, okay. I thought we were on the same page,” Harry reminded.

“Yeah, I know. I mean…”

“Is that really how you imagined it happening?” He asked a moment later.

“No. Of course not. I just… I don’t know. I had to ask,” she concluded.

“No, we did not have sex. You passed out, so I laid with you until I fell asleep,” he told her.

“Thanks for not leaving me there by myself,” she told him, genuinely grateful for him.

“I would have never,” he told her sincerely.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“You’re welcome.”

The line went silent for a few moments while Andie’s brain tingled with feelings for Harry. He made it so hard not to fall for him.

“Um, another question,” she said a moment later, remembering the other elephant in the room - or a _Liam Payne_ if you will.

“What?” He asked.

“How did _Liam_ end up in bed with us?” She asked, causing Harry to let out a boisterous laugh. She couldn’t help but laugh with him.

“Uh, yeah. I asked him about it. He told me he was just trying to find some place to pass out and uh, apparently you were uh, far enough on my side of the bed for him to steal the rest of the mattress,” Harry chuckled.

“Far enough on your side of the bed?” She questioned, but realized why a moment later.

“You’re a snuggler,” Harry told her with a light laugh.

“Oh. Ha,” Andie giggled, feeling her cheeks blush again. _Snuggler? Oh_ , he was so adorable.

“Oh, uh, so apparently something um… awkward happened last night,” she started, remembering Janessa and Louis’ conversation in the car.

“What?” He asked.

“Apparently Niall and Caitlyn walked in on us… I mean, like, when I was, you know… giving you head,” she explained.

“I know,” he told her matter-of-factly.

“You _know?”_ She asked incredulously.

“Yeah. I told them to get the fuck out. You don’t remember that?” Harry chuckled.

“ _No!”_ Andie laughed.

“Wow. You must have been… _whew_ … really out of it. Now I feel terrible for letting you do that,” Harry told her.

“Don’t feel bad,” she told him.

“I mean, I should have realized,” he told her.

“Don’t feel bad. I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do,” she concluded.

“ _Oh?”_ He questioned, sounding intrigued.

“Oh, shut up,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes and Harry let out a loud laugh.

“You know what I mean,” she told him, smiling bashfully.

“Oh, I _know_ what you mean, _Andria_ ,” Harry teased her.

“ _Shut up_ ,” she groaned and he laughed more.

“So, how did you find out that Niall and Caitlyn walked in on us if you don’t remember?”

“Uh, I woke up in the car today and heard Janessa and Louis talking about it,” she told him.

“Oh, _Jesus_ ,” he groaned.

“So yeah… pretty sure everyone’s gonna know soon enough,” she told him matter-of-factly.

“I’m sure they already do,” Harry said, letting out an awkward laugh.

“I mean… oh, well, I guess,” she said, letting out a weighted breath. She’d rather not have everyone know, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

“It is what it is,” Harry said a moment later.

“It is what it is,” she agreed.

She just hoped it would be old news by the next time they hung out with their friends again. She didn’t really want their lasting impression of her to be _‘that one girl that hooked-up with Harry’_ when she left at the end of the summer.


	10. Ten

**July 2011**

Louis Tomlinson's name lit up on the screen of Andie's cell phone that Saturday afternoon. She froze for a second wondering why in the hell Louis was calling her. Had he even ever called her before?

"Hello?" She answered, the word coming out as more of an unsure question than a greeting.

" _An-dri-a_..." Louis greeted, exaggerating each syllable of her name.

" _Lou-eee_ ," she replied, doing the same with his name.

"Wanna come over?" He asked, surprising the hell out of her, but not at the same time.

On one hand, why the hell was _he_ inviting her? She'd always been invited by either Janessa or Harry - except for that very first time. And on the other hand, it was a weekend, and when didn't Louis have people over on a weekend?

"Another party?" She snickered.

"Not mine," he said, baffling her completely.

"What?" She asked with a laugh.

"Mumsy and Daddy are having a barbeque," Louis said comically.

"Your parents are _actually_ home?" Andie asked, her mouth falling open in awe. Her mind was blown.

"Yeah. It's their annual barbeque with all their yuppy friends. But the food's good and Mom and Dad get shitfaced so we usually end up stealing their booze and partying in the basement," Louis explained with a laugh.

"Wow."

"C'mon. Your boy Harry is gonna be here," Louis told her.

"He is not _'my boy'_ ," she said evenly.

"Yeah. _Ohh-kay_ ," Louis said, not buying a single word she was saying.

"He's not," Andie protested with a laugh.

"Okay. The boy you 'fuck around with' on occasion," Louis laughed.

" _Oh my god_. That's even worse!" Andie laughed.

"C'mon, Andie. Are you giving it to my boy or what?" Louis asked suggestively.

" _Oh my god_. Shut up, Louis," she laughed incredulously.

"Ah, I'm kidding. Are you gonna come over or what?" He asked again.

"Uh, yeah. I guess," she said, feeling entirely flustered.

"You _guess?_ Of course you fucking are," Louis told her with a laugh.

"What time?"

"Whenever the fuck you want to get here. _Harry's_ already here," Louis said, saying his name suggestively.

"Louis, _shut up_ ," she groaned, causing him to let out a boisterous laugh.

"Wear something cute!" He told her.

"Okay," she replied with a laugh.

"See you soon, babes," he said quickly before ending the call.

_Oh my god._

Her face was so flushed from their short conversation. And only got worse when she realized that Harry was probably sitting right next to him during the whole thing. _Ugh_. What if he had her on speakerphone? _Gahhhh_.

...

Andie dressed in a hot pink maxi dress and smiled to herself when she remembered the day Harry put it on over his clothes and twirled for her in her closet. He was such a dork. But she loved it. She loved his sense of humor so much.

As Andie got ready, she started to feel a bit weird being invited over to Louis' for his _parents_ barbeque. It made her sort of nervous to meet them. She didn't exactly know why. It wasn't like she was Louis' girlfriend and she was on her way to _'meet the parents'_ for the first time. Maybe it was because she spent a few hours making out and being felt up by Harry in their bed during a drunken night not long ago.

She wondered what type of people Louis' parents were. She hoped they weren't as void of feelings and emotion as her own father. But then again, Louis was so bubbly and happy, she couldn't even imagine him growing up without love around him.

Andie didn't want to go to the party empty handed, so she snuck down into her father's wine cellar and grabbed a random bottle of red wine, dusted it off and brought it with her. That's what fancy people did, right? Bring each other gifts like wine? When she walked out of her father's house, she noticed all the cars parked up and down the road and realized Louis must have gotten his thrill of large parties from his parents.

She felt apprehensive as she walked up the path to the front door. She'd been there so many times, spent so many hours behind those walls, but this was completely different. When she rang the doorbell, she let out a breath and watched as it opened almost immediately.

"Welcome," a dark-haired lady wearing a white shirt, black vest and black slacks greeted her.

"Thank you," Andie said, stepping inside, noticing more people dressed the same way as the greeter. They must have been a hired staff for the party. _Fancy_.

"The party is on the back patio," the greeter informed her with a pleasant smile, waving her hand in the direction she was to walk.

"Um, thanks," Andie said with a small smile as she walked toward the large opened french doors to the back of the house, leading to the upper patio area where she spent so many nights drinking and joking around with her friends.

Once she stepped out into the backyard, she was transported into what looked like a fairy garden. There were so many flowers and twinkling lights strung up and hanging from the large pergola that towered over the patio. It was absolutely beautiful. There were many tables set up with massive bouquets of flowers and candles on them and there were people everywhere. It looked like a scene out of a wedding or something.

"Andie!" She heard Louis excitedly call her name. When she turned to find him, she almost choked on her breath, because he was literally wearing a shirt and tie. _Holy shit_. He looked dapper as hell.

"Hi," she said, looking at him with wide eyes as he walked up to her.

"How's it going?" He asked with a wide smile.

"Uh, good. You didn't tell me this was a _legitimat_ e cocktail party," Andie told him, feeling a bit underdressed in her hot pink maxi dress.

"You look great. Come on," he said, gripping onto her hand as he pulled her to the table where Janessa, Liam, Niall and Caitlyn all sat. There was also a girl sitting next to Liam who Andie recognized, but couldn't remember her name. Each one of them were dressed like they were at a wedding, thus further making her feel out of place.

"Andie!" She heard a few of them call her name with wide smiles on their faces.

"Hi," she said, her face blushing, wondering immediately where Harry was.

"Aw, you brought wine," Louis said, grabbing the bottle from her.

"Wow. Nice vintage," he said, reading the label, looking impressed. Andie immediately hoped she didn't just jack a bottle of super expensive wine that her father was saving for something. _Oh, well_. Too late now.

"It's for your parents," Andie giggled, grabbing it back from him.

"Ah. You wanna meet them?" Louis asked with a smile.

"Uh, yeah, sure," she said, feeling interested and uneasy at the same time.

"I can take her over there," Janessa told him as she stood up.

"Alright, babe," Louis said, kissing her quickly before he sat back down at the table with his friends.

"C'mon. His parents are really nice," Janessa told her as they walked toward a group of adults. Andie was relieved to hear it.

"Jay," Janessa said as they walked up to a beautiful brunette lady. She quickly spun toward them and turned up a smile when she saw her son's girlfriend.

"Nessa," the lady cooed, lovingly rubbing her hand up and down Janessa's arm a few times.

"Jay, I want you to meet, Andie. She lives across the street from you," Janessa introduced them.

"Hello! I'm Johannah," she said, immediately wrapping her arms around Andie in a hug.

"Or you can call me Jay. Everyone does," she added as she pulled back to look at her.

"Hi," Andie giggled, liking her already.

"Welcome," Jay told her.

"Thank you. This is for you," Andie said, handing her the wine.

"Wow. Thank you so much. You didn't have to," Jay said with a wide smile, looking down at the bottle.

"Ooh, that's a good vintage," she told her a moment later and Janessa and Andie both laughed.

"That's what Louis just said," Janessa commented.

"He learned from his mama," Jay laughed before turning her vision back to Andie.

"You're Raymond Ellis' daughter?" She asked, her eyes sparkling as she watched her.

"I am," Andie said with a smile.

"I honestly never knew he had any kids until Louis told me recently," Jay said with a laugh.

"Yeah. That's what I'm hearing from a lot of people. I do also have two older brothers that are in their forties, but I don't know them. I haven't seen them since I was a baby," Andie chuckled.

"I didn't know you had brothers," Janessa said, smiling at her.

"I forget most of the time," Andie chuckled.

"Wow. So Raymond Ellis has _three_ children? I am speechless," Jay said, her eyes wide in surprise.

"Yeah. He's a man of mystery," Andie joked, smiling wide at her. He really was. Andie knew very little about her father.

"And you're Harry's new girlfriend, right?" Jay asked a moment later, causing Andie to nearly choke on her own saliva.

" _Um_... no... _uh_..." She stammered.

"Practically! They've been joined at the hip all summer," Janessa said, smiling suggestively at Andie.

" _Uh_..." Andie sputtered, but was at a complete loss for words.

"Harry's _such_ a good kid. He's like a second son to me," Louis' mom told her.

_Oh, great_. So it really _was_ like she was meeting her _'boyfriend's'_ parents. Though, Andie would adamantly argue to anyone that Harry was in no way her boyfriend. Even though, you know, they really liked kissing each other and doing stupid shit like getting caught fooling around in a bedroom when they're both so out of their minds that the next day they can barely remember what happened. _Oh_ , and making out and dry humping in the bedroom of the lady she was currently talking to. _Oh, god_. Her face heated up exponentially thinking about it again.

"You're _gorgeous_. Harry sure knows how to pick 'em, huh?" Jay said, saying the last part with a nudge to Janessa's arm.

"Yeah he does," Janessa giggled.

"Oh, _wow_ ," Andie said, laughing uncomfortably.

"Where is Harry? I haven't seen him in awhile," Jay said, craning her neck to try to locate him.

"Uh, he's over there talking to his parents. They just got here," Janessa said, pointing across the way.

Andie's vision fell on him immediately and her blood ran cold. His _real_ parents were there? _Oh, for the love of God_. She was going to pass out. She was sure of it. She never in a million years thought she was walking into an ambush when Louis invited her over for the barbeque. And how the hell could it even be considered a _barbeque_ anyway? _Wow_. She was stressing.

But no matter how out-of-control her thoughts were, she still managed to feel the butterflies in the pit of her stomach when she looked at Harry. He was wearing a black button-up with a black tie and black slacks. _Holy shit_. She had never seen him look so _good_.

"Want to go say 'hi' to him?" Janessa asked Andie a moment later, just as Jay's attention was grabbed by another guest.

"What? _No_ ," Andie choked out.

"Why not? You _are_ his date, aren't you?"

" _What?_ No. _What?"_ Andie asked, looking at Janessa with wide, questioning eyes.

"Oh, I thought—" Janessa began, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

" _Louis_ called and invited me to come over. He didn't even tell me what kind of party this was. He casually told me to come by _'whenever'_ and to _'wear something cute'_ ," Andie explained quickly, using air quotes as she talked.

"Oh. I thought Harry asked you as his date. Everyone else has a date," Janessa told her. _Oh, wow_.

"No. He did not," Andie told her firmly.

"I mean, well, you're here. I'm _so_ glad you're here. You don't need a date. Harry's stupid," Janessa said, waving it off.

"I feel really out of place here," Andie said, looking around at all the people.

"Oh, shut up. You look great and we _obviously_ want you here!" Janessa said, leading her back to the table of their friends.

"C'mon. Sit down," Janessa said, offering the spot next to her.

Just as Andie sat down and slung her purse over the back of her chair, Harry was walking up to the table with his parents. Andie's insides clenched and her mouth went completely dry.

"Anne!" Louis yelped immediately, standing up to wrap Harry's mom in a hug before pulling back to shake his step-father's hand.

But Harry's mom and step-father barely got to say hello before they were interrupted.

"Hello," they heard on the microphone and all of their attention was brought to the person who was talking.

"We're going to go to our table. We'll see you soon," Harry's mom said to him before kissing him on the cheek. It was so cute and made Andie bite back a smile as Harry came to sit down in the open seat next to her.

"Hello," Harry breathed in her ear.

"Hi," she said, sending him a quick smile.

"We're so happy you're all here with us tonight," the man on the microphone said.

"Is that Louis' dad?" Andie asked Harry quickly.

"Step-dad, but yeah. That's Mark," Harry confirmed.

"I know our annual dinner party usually looks a bit differently than this..." Mark continued on the mic.

"Nice dress," Harry breathed in Andie's ear a moment later and she couldn't help but smile.

"I still think I look better in it though," Harry joked and Andie let out a laugh, catching the attention of everyone at their table.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, biting her lip. She could hear Harry snickering next to her and she wanted to elbow him in the gut.

"Telling secrets?" Janessa asked, nudging her arm, causing Andie to smile and roll her eyes.

"It's been fifteen years since I married this wonderful woman and became a father to her amazing son Louis," Mark continued to speak into the microphone.

" _Woo!_ " Louis shouted in acknowledgement and the guests chuckled at him.

"That's my dad," Louis said to his table of friends with a wide smile on his face.

Andie couldn't help but feel a rush of happiness for him. She didn't know their backstory or where Louis' biological father was, but she could see the pride in both Louis and Mark's eyes that they had the opportunity to be in each other's lives.

As Andie's attention focused back on Louis' parents, she felt Harry rest his arm on the back of her chair. Her face immediately flushed. It felt so intimate to her. Like he was showing, with that one gesture, that they were like, _together_ or something.

Harry was so complicated. She had no idea how his brain worked. He didn't want anything in regards to a relationship with her or _anybody_ , yet he continued, time and time again, to treat her like she was his girlfriend. It made her head spin.

Or maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe he just needed a convenient place to rest his arm. Maybe it was just her feelings for him getting in the way.

When Louis' step-dad was done speaking, he handed the microphone to his wife.

"I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here to celebrate our fifteen year wedding anniversary with us. It means so much. We love you. Now, _let's eat!"_

"Wait, this is their _anniversary_ party?" Andie asked Harry quickly, her eyes wide. She felt so very out of place, like she was crashing it somehow. She didn't _know_ them. Why was she there?

" _Mm-hmm_ ," Harry hummed, nodding his head at her.

She took a deep breath and tried to drain the discomfort she was feeling out of her body. She would just have to make the most out of the night since she was already there. But she planned to punch Louis in the arm for throwing her to the wolves by inviting her there.

Dinner was absolutely delicious with a choice of prime rib, salmon or a vegan pasta. She chose the prime rib and she was _not_ disappointed. When the waiter served a few plates to the table that displayed some sort of mushroom or other fungus-looking thing that seemed to be drowned in butter, Andie quickly looked over at Harry with an anxious expression.

"Do you know what that is?" He asked with a smirk.

"No," she said, really trying to keep the disgusted look off of her face.

"They're really good," he said, spearing one of them with his fork before popping it into his mouth. Andie couldn't hold back her reaction at that point.

"Escargot," he said once he chewed and swallowed the booger looking thing.

She'd heard the word before. A word that went hand-in-hand in her mind with something boujee like caviar. She knew it was some sort of upper-class cuisine, but she didn't really know what it was.

"Snails," Harry said with a smile.

" _Uhh_ ," she groaned, really making a face that time.

"Don't knock it 'til you try it," he said with a laugh, patting her knee under the table.

"You want me to put _that_ in my mouth?" She asked incredulously.

"I've _seen_ what you put in your mouth," Harry said with a mischievous smirk and a suggestive bounce of his eyebrows.

" _Oh my god!"_ Andie yelped, shoving his shoulder as he let out a loud laugh. Yes, his _appendage_ had been in her mouth, but that was nothing compared to the slimy mess that was on that plate.

"They're cooked," he said, spearing another one onto his fork.

"So?" She replied, shaking her head in adamant refusal.

"Try it," he said, offering it up to her.

"No way!" She laughed, looking at it hanging off his fork. It looked even more horrific up close.

" _Try_ it," he said again, moving it closer to her.

"Harry, _no_ ," she said, gripping onto his wrist so he wouldn't be able to completely shove it in her face.

"It's not gonna kill you," Harry said with a laugh.

"Are you going to hold my hair back when I vomit?" She chuckled, a look of apprehension still on her face.

"Yes. I will hold your hair back _if_ you vomit," he said, breathing out a laugh.

" _Unngg_ ," Andie whined, contemplating whether or not she was going to eat it.

"You want to eat it when it's still warm," Harry insisted, his smirk still ever-present on his face.

She scoffed before finally wrapping her mouth around Harry's fork and taking the poor excuse for cuisine into her mouth, chewing it quickly.

" _Yay!"_ Harry cheered, throwing his hands up in the air as he watched her, catching the attention of the table again and a few other people.

"Oh my god," she mumbled as she swallowed.

"Good girl," Harry cooed, squeezing her shoulder with a proud smile on his face.

" _Oh my god_. Did you _eat_ one of those?" Caitlyn asked, looking at her with wide-eyes.

" _Mm-hmm_ ," Andie groaned, her lips pulled down into a frown.

"Oh, it was good," Harry laughed, shoving her shoulder lightly.

She had to admit, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but she didn't know if she wanted to give Harry the satisfaction of being right. The smile on his face was so smug already.

"I wish _you_ were that adventurous," Niall laughed, elbowing Caitlyn lightly.

"Over my dead body," Caitlyn said, turning her nose up at it.

"They're delicious," Niall said, loading his fork with another one.

"They are," Harry said, popping one into his mouth.

"More for you then," Andie said with a laugh, pushing the plate closer to him.

"Perfect," Harry said with a laugh.

...

After dinner, people began to trickle out onto the dancefloor that was set up over the pool, dancing to the soft music the live band played. Andie smiled watching Louis' parents dancing with each other. They looked so happy, fifteen years later. She could only hope to find a love like that.

Andie's heart began to race as her friends all seemed to drift off to the dancefloor with their partners and it was just her and Harry left sitting at the table. 'Uncomfortable' couldn't even describe how she was feeling, but it was the best she could come up with.

"Would you like to dance?" Harry asked her a moment later. Andie looked over at him, unable to really think in the moment.

Harry stood up and with a soft smile, held out his hand for her. Her stomach flipped and flopped as she slipped her palm against his and he led her out on the dance floor. This was now the third time she shared a dance with Harry and it was the most intimate out of all of them; with their cheeks pressed ever-so slightly to one another's, one of his hands pressed against the small of her back and the other one holding hers up next to them. She had never danced with someone like that before. She couldn't help but smile to herself, because she liked it. She liked it _a lot_.

"I didn't know you'd be here," Harry breathed in her ear.

" _Mm_ ," she hummed, pulling back to look at him. His eyes looked into hers for a moment before she looked down at her hand that rested against his shoulder.

"Um, Louis... he called me today," Andie told him a moment later. She felt a bit of relief knowing that Harry hadn't been a part of the phone conversation she and Louis had.

"Ah," Harry breathed in acknowledgement.

"I'm slowly learning it was Louis' plan for me to be your date," Andie said with a ghost of a smile on her lips.

"What?" Harry asked, pulling his head back to look at her confused, causing Andie to let out a light laugh.

"Yeah. And his mom is under the impression that I'm your girlfriend," Andie told him.

"Really? I did not know that," Harry said with a laugh, leaning forward to touch their cheeks together again.

"Yeah. I was bombarded by that fact when I got here," Andie laughed uncomfortably.

" _Wow_. Sorry," Harry breathed out a laugh.

" _Mm-hmm_ ," she hummed, looking around at all the people dancing.

Harry's parents were dancing not far from them and when Andie's eyes met with his mom's, she smiled approvingly at her as Andie danced so closely with her son. Her stomach knotted up. Everyone seemed to approve of them being together but Harry.

"I was going to invite you, but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, you know... with all of _this_ ," he told her a moment later.

"It's okay. Louis did it for you," Andie said with a light laugh.

"I can't say I'm _mad_ about it," Harry said, pulling back to send her a smirk. She couldn't help but smile back, rolling her eyes at him as the bashfulness hit her.

"I didn't realize it would be like _this_ ," Andie said, changing the subject so she could wash away the favorable rush of feelings she was feeling for him.

"What?"

"This party. Louis said it was a _barbeque_ , not an anniversary party," she chuckled. Harry snorted out a laugh.

"His parent's do a barbeque every year. Just, this year, they made it into their anniversary party instead," Harry explained.

"Oh, okay," she said, feeling a little bit better about it.

"But there's not a lot that's different from how it usually is."

"It's usually like this?" She asked, looking at the thousands of flowers and lights strung up on just about everything.

"Just like this," Harry said with a nod.

"Wow," Andie said in complete awe.

"I mean, except there usually isn't a band and a dancefloor," Harry corrected with a laugh.

"Oh, okay. Then I guess it's not _that_ extravagant," Andie joked and Harry let out a laugh.

"It's beautiful though," she told him with a smile. She didn't want to sound like she was judging them, because she wasn't. She was just in complete awe over how the 1% lived.

"It is," Harry said, his eyes staring into hers. The look he was giving her made her brain tingle in the best possible way. She bit back a smile and looked away, feeling vehemently bashful.

Sometimes he was just too much for her to handle.

...

"Hi, baby," Andie heard from behind where she and Harry sat at the table some time later in the evening.

"Hey, Mom," Harry said, smiling as he turned his body toward her. Andie turned too, to give Harry more room to face his mom.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" She asked, heightening an eyebrow in question at her son before looking at Andie.

"Uh, yeah. _Um_. This is Andria," Harry told her and Andie watched as his hand came up to pinch his bottom lip between his fingers. She could tell he was uncomfortable or nervous. Or both.

"Well, hello, Andria. I'm Anne. Harry's mom," she greeted, holding her hand out.

"Hi. You can call me Andie," she told her, shaking her hand.

"Andie," his mom said with a soft smile.

"It's very nice to meet you," Anne told her.

"You as well," Andie replied, smiling pleasantly at her.

"How do you two know each other?" She asked a moment later.

"Uh. She's Louis' neighbor," Harry interjected.

"Uh, yeah. I'm just here for the summer. I met these guys a little over a month ago," Andie said, gesturing around the table at their friends.

"Oh, fun," Anne cooed.

"So, yeah," Harry said awkwardly.

"You're very beautiful," Anne told Andie with a smile.

" _Mom_ ," Harry said under his breath.

"What?" She asked, looking at her son.

And it was only then that Andie realized that his mom also thought she and Harry were dating. She supposed the two of them dancing so intimately together earlier wasn't helping in staving off people's suspicions. Or the fact that they hadn't left each other's side since Harry first sat down at the table with her.

"She's beautiful. Isn't she?" His mom asked him insistently.

"Yes," Harry said through gritted teeth and Andie couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Well, thank you very much. That's very nice to hear. Even if it's _forced_ ," Andie told them, smiling widely at Harry.

"It's not—" Harry said, but cut his words off and rolled his eyes. He was flustered and it was so endearing.

"Well, it was so nice to meet you, Andie. I hope to see you again at some point this summer," Anne told her.

"You too," Andie said, smiling at her. She was very sweet.

"I'll see you later, honey," Anne said, patting her son's shoulder before she turned and walked away.

Harry scooted his chair back toward the table and Andie adjusted hers as well.

"Sorry," Harry said under his breath.

"Why are you apologizing?" She asked, smiling from ear-to-ear. His embarrassed smile was ever-present as he rolled his eyes and dropped the subject altogether.

She realized in that moment that she really liked seeing Harry vulnerable and uncomfortable. It was a brand new side to him and it was charming.

...

" _Oh my god_. We should order pizza," Louis said as he sat on the couch in the lower level of his house once they broke off from the party.

" _Yessss!"_ Niall agreed, exaggerating his response, like he was dying for it.

" _Murphy's_. Only if it's _Murphy's_ ," Harry chimed in.

Andie's eyes fell on him. He was sitting next to Louis, his tie now knotted loosely around his neck with the top button of his shirt undone and his long sleeves rolled up on his forearms. He looked so extremely sexy, she had to look away before he caught her staring at him.

"Of course _Murphy's_. The fuck?" Louis scoffed, looking at his best friend with the most absurd expression.

"Well, then fucking call them," Harry scoffed back at him, sending him his own ridiculous look.

"What's _Murphy's?"_ Andie asked, feeling like the biggest outsider on earth. But she was - to them anyway.

"Only the best fucking pizza this side of the Hudson," Louis gushed and Andie couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm. She looked at Harry and saw him nodding in agreement.

"Okay," she said with a light laugh.

"Just you wait, Andria. Just you wait," Louis said as he pulled out his phone to call in their order.

"Do you have it on speed dial?" Andie laughed when all it took was him pressing his screen once before he put it up to his ear.

"Fuck yeah," he said, pulling out his pack of cigarettes before placing one between his lips as he got off the couch.

"Yeah, hi. I wanna make an order for delivery," Louis spoke into the receiver as he walked toward the door and disappeared outside.

Andie took a breath and stood up, realizing it was the perfect time to have a talk with Louis about the stunt he pulled earlier that day, so she followed him out and waited patiently as he finished ordering.

"Oh, hey, babes," Louis said, smiling at her as he took a drag of his cigarette.

"I know what you did," she said, smiling wryly at him.

"What did I do?" He asked, heightening an eyebrow as a smirk formed on his lips.

"Inviting me over here to con me into being Harry's date," she said with a light laugh.

"Oh, ha," he laughed, taking another drag of his cigarette, not denying it one bit.

"I walked into an ambush," she laughed, leaning over to punch him in the arm.

" _Ow_. Not an ambush," he laughed.

" _Yes!_ This was your parent's _anniversary_ party!" She argued.

"So. Would you really have come if I told you the truth?" He asked, snickering to himself.

"I wouldn't have worn a hot pink maxi dress if I knew," Andie laughed, holding her arms out to show him and he let out a loud laugh.

"Ah, who gives a fuck? You look hot," he chuckled.

"That's not the point. You and Janessa keep trying to throw me and Harry together..." She continued.

"Whatever. When Harry showed up here without a date... i.e. _you_ , I knew I had to get you here," Louis told her with a shrug.

" _Why?"_

"Cause we all figured he would have asked you. He was _supposed_ to. But obviously he's a little pussy," Louis laughed.

"Oh my god," Andie groaned.

"You and _your boy_ Harry need to stop playing around and just admit that you like each other. It would be so much easier. I _promise_ ," Louis laughed.

"We're not—" She began to argue just as the door opened and Harry stepped out with an unlit cigarette in his hand.

Louis and Andie's conversation cut off immediately as they stared at him.

"Did I interrupt something?" Harry questioned uncomfortably, looking between the two of them.

"Um, no," Andie said quickly.

"Nope," Louis snickered under his breath.

" _Shut up_ ," Andie said, leaning over to punch Louis in the arm again.

" _Ow!"_ Louis yelped, but kept laughing.

" _Ohh_ -kay," Harry said with an awkward chuckle.

" _Ugh_ ," Andie groaned before she stepped around Harry and made her way back into the house.

She only wanted something with Harry if _he_ wanted it too. And she wanted it to happen _naturally,_ if it were to happen. So, Louis and Janessa's meddling was just becoming an obstacle that she seemed to have to deflect over and over again. And she was sure, with Louis' response to her that night, that it wasn't going to stop any time soon.


End file.
